History Repeats Itself
by pottergrl15
Summary: The soul is immortal, it cannot be contained. One life spills into the next like ripples in a pond. What happens when two teens accidently unlock the door that keeps these lives separate? Troypay! Trailer now up.
1. Trailer

Trailer

Bold - voice over, Italic - actions, regular - talking.

**They say that the soul is immortal…**

_Images of Egypt, Rome, England, France, and Massachusetts appear for a moment and fade out._

**That no matter what, it cannot be restrained to one life…**

_Shows flash after flash of Troy and Sharpay, dressed differently in different locations through out time._

**Every life lived is connected to the next…**

_Shows flashes slowing and melting into one another, the differences between each Troy and Sharpay nearly nonexistent._

**Never meant to be realized…**

_Shows Troy and Sharpay pass each other in the hall…_

**Until now…**

…_their eyes lock…_

**What happens when two unsuspecting teens…**

_Shows Sharpay looking worriedly across the stage at Troy as Chad corners him._

_Shows Troy watching Sharpay as she walks through the team, gaze lingering._

**Unlock the door to the past…**

_Shows a war raging on in the middle of the desert, a single female figure watching from the wall of a palace…_

_Shows a man painting a portrait of a woman at a piano…_

_Shows a blonde woman meeting a man dressed in chain mail at night, handing him a small piece of jewelry…_

_Shows a man standing at a podium waving as flashes assault him…_

_Shows a timid looking woman being pulled into a crowd of men and women in togas, one approaching her with a sword…_

**How will it affect the present...**

_Shows Sharpay and Troy arguing amidst their friends._

"Guys! Speak English!" Chad yells as they turn to face him eyes widening in confusion.

_Shows Sharpay in the girl's bathroom splashing water on her face, she looks up into the mirror only to see someone else staring back at her._

"Wha…"

_Shows Troy walking down the hall as Chad sneaks up behind him and smacks his back. Troy grabs his arm and twists it behind him, letting go once he realizes its Chad._

"Sorry…"

**How will it affect their future…**

_Shows Troy talking to Gabriella, tears streaming down her face._

"Gabby I'm sorry!" Troy says, but is met with a slap.

_Shows Sharpay running on stage, tears falling from her eyes as she collapses on the floor._

"What is going on?!"

_Shows Troy standing outside Sharpay's room in the rain._

"Oh my god Troy!" she shouts letting him in, "What happe…"

Troy doesn't reply as he pushes her against the wall, mouth smashing to her own…they fall to the floor…

**As the old saying goes…History Repeats Itself…**


	2. Chapter One

History Repeats Itself

A/N – I was watching XxCandyxCounterxGirlxX 's trailer for her story (Troy and Sharpay) on youtube over the weekend…chills…completely inspired me to write another Troypay fic! I wasn't really going to do another one…at least not this soon, but what can I say when a muse talks…you listen! lol, anyway, this is the first chapter but it's also going to be like a prologue type thing…it'll be a little confusing, but everything you read just before the actual story takes place has something to do with the actual story I'm going to write…I hope it doesn't confuse anyone too badly…here it is…

Egypt 2492 BC

_He sat on the marble throne of his fathers, not paying attention to what the courts were saying, but looking out on the construction the slaves were doing. The sun was bearing down on the workers, making it all the more hot in the dry climate of Egypt._

_The doors to the throne room were thrust open as a soldier made his way towards him. He knelt down, pressing a fist to his heart in honor before standing. "She has arrived Tehuti."_

_Tehuti nodded, signifying for his general to bring her in. The general nodded, kneeling and pressing his fist to his heart once more before exiting the room. Tehuti sat a little straighter as he waited for his man to arrive. A minute or two later the doors opened once more and a woman walked in with a male on either side of her. _

_Tehuti's sapphire like eyes locked with her sky blue ones as he stood slowly from his throne watching her walk. She was wearing an immaculate white top made of linen, two straps holding it up as it was cut above her midriff. A white skirt flowed to the floor around her, held to her by a small gold belt. She had one gold armlet on her left arm, numerous bracelets on either wrist, and only two thin gold bracelets on her ankle, which he could glimpse as she walked, sandals clicking softly on the stone floor. Her hands were clasping a sacred amulet she wore around her neck, tightening the closer she came. Her oddest feature was her hair, a bright gold, as if it had been spun from rays of the sun, held back by her headdress, there were not many golden haired women he knew of._

_Her sky blue eyes were brought out by the black of her eye make up, staring intensely at him as she walked. She eyed him up and down briefly, his dark brown hair appearing naturally black with dye, his eyes blazing like sapphires through his own eye make up. He wore a knee length white silk skirt with a golden belt, armlets, bracelets, and anklets adorning his figure. His wesekh, his collar, was made of gold and beaded with all the turquoise and lapis lazuli of a king. _

_When she reached him, she bowed deeply, "Greetings Lord Pharaoh," she said, still kneeling. _

_He took a few steps forward till he was standing before her. He reached out a hand, taking the one that was rested on her knee, pulling her up to face him. She was a born priestess of Amun, an oracle tender, descendent of priests and priestesses alike. She was a god wife, nearly equal in power to him, the god king of Egypt. _

_She nodded at him in respect, "I am Subira," she said, looking him in the eye._

_He nodded turning back to his throne. He stood before it, gazing at Subira; she would be most useful to his rule. He had recently surpassed an enemy in Egypt, a man trying to steal his crown…Tehuti had struck him down with an iron fist, and in order to spare his own life, the man had offered his finest priestess to serve the pharaoh. He had offered his most sacred priestess._

_He sat on the throne, nodding once again to dismiss Subira from the court. She nodded in understanding before turning and walking through the crowd that parted for her, staring in awe. He smiled softly as he watched her go. A priestess was chosen by the gods to serve them, they were the most sacred of women. No one dare touch a priestess, no one, unless it was allowed by the priestess herself. He glanced down at his hand; she had allowed him to touch her…_

Rome 505 BC

_The boy sighed as his father was cornered by yet another Patrician. He bowed his head; it was not fair that he could not even walk a few feet with his father before someone stopped them to talk with the newly elected Senator. Quintus Julius Trenus glanced up at his father, who gave him an apologetic look before turning his attention back to the conversation._

_Trenus sighed once more before walking away, pushing slightly through all the people in the Forum. He paused a moment here and there, eyeing the many objects and foods for sale. Spices and silks were the most common imports that he found on his trek down the stoned area. Merchants called out for him to buy their fish, their jewels, their cloth! But he would have none of it, it was not needed. _

_He wandered a while longer, helping a young woman pick up the fruit and parchment she had dropped before continuing on. He stopped just beside a large crowd gathered around a platform of some sort. A man stood on it shouting out numbers as the crowd eagerly took to it._

_His gaze was drawn from the floor of the forum to the platform as something golden caught his attention. The man on the platform had grabbed a girl, nearly his own youthful age, from a small group in the back and thrust her before the people. Her golden hair fell, dimmed slightly from filth, wavy and long. She wore only a dirty grey stola, a sort of sleeveless dress. She had dirt on her face and kept her eyes cast downwards. "Who will give me ten?" the man shouted to the crowd._

_As soon as his eyes landed on the girl, she looked up slowly, almost as if feeling a pair of unique eyes upon her. Blue met blue and remained locked together. Trenus' breath hitched in his throat as he gazed into one sky blue eye, the other hidden by her falling hair. Time seemed to slow and the shouts of the people lessened as he stared. He could hear a pounding in his ears as the girl held his gaze._

"_Twenty!" A voice shouted next to Trenus. He tore his eyes away from the girl's to see his father, Quintus Julius Brunus, standing next to him in all his glory. His immaculate white tunica and toga outlined with purple bands of his status, matching the outfit Trenus himself wore as a sign of relation._

"_Sold!" The man cried. Brunus looked down at his son smiling before they made their way to the man, handing over the money. _

_The man grasped the girl by the nape of her neck, shoving her off the stage, nearly making her fall as she was already unsteady with her hands bound behind her back._

_Trenus caught her and steadied her, "Father?" he asked confused, looking up through the brown hair that fell into his eyes._

_His father smiled at him, "She is all yours son," he said before walking off._

_Trenus turned to the girl, "What is your name?" he asked, as he untied her bindings._

_She took a few deep breaths, looking at her wrists as she rubbed them, "Sericia Eudo," she whispered._

_He reached out, lifting her chin to face him, "Sericia?" he asked, she nodded, "Beautiful…" he said softly, earning a small smile from her…_

England 1229 AD

_She had been talking with her father for the past hour and still he refused to relent even just a little. She placed her hands on her hips, making them nearly invisible under the light blue fabric of her long bell sleeves. She glared at her papa; he could be so stubborn sometimes. He kept insisting that she marry…and soon…but she did not want to! She had heard terrible stories from her friends in the court about their own marriages and she did not want that to happen to her. But her father refused to see reason, just because she was noble born she had to marry._

_She let her hands fall, bowing her head, her long blond hair falling to either side of her face, despite the fact that it was supposed to be held back by the hair ties that she had just gone though moments of torture to achieve. The ladies in waiting had never been too gentle with her hair…not like her mother had been…_

_She looked back up at her father, about to speak when one of the squires ran in. "My lord! My lord! Come quickly!" he shouted, before turning to run back the way he'd come. _

_Her father gave her a brief look, "Sarah, stay here," he instructed her, before following quickly after the boy. She followed soon after that, her curiosity peeked and she had never been that good at following orders anyway. _

_She grasped at the silky fabric of her flowing light blue dress, holding it up just a little to avoid tripping as she ran down the halls, her dainty feet making hardly any noise on the stone floors. Every time she took a step her black belt would hit her legs but still she did not stop. She only stopped when she reached the main court yard. Soldiers were carrying in the wounded back from the Crusades. Men were groaning in pain as they lay on the canvases held between two or four men. _

_Sarah gasped at the sight. She looked around when her gaze drifted to a singular soldier a good twenty feet from her. She made her way there, as if some force were making her go to him. She knelt down, taking in the damage. He had a wound in his side that looked as though it had been opening up for a while as it healed, the red liquid of his blood seeping trough the dark blue fabric of his draping. His white tunic beneath it was already completely red. His hand pressed firmly against it despite the pain it caused him. She could tell he was in pain, his eye were forced closed._

_She reached out a hand, gently placing it on his damp forehead before pulling it away quickly. He was burning up. She quickly undid the metal belt that held his sword; it was blocking half the wound and wouldn't put enough pressure on it to stop the bleeding. She had just unhooked it when a hand reached out and grasped her wrist harshly. She looked down, it was the boy, he still held the wound with his left hand while his right had seized her right hand. She smiled softly at him, noticing his eyes were open to reveal the most stunning blue that she had ever seen. She reached out tentatively with her left hand, but he seemed not to have noticed at all, his gaze staring into hers._

_She gently laid her palm on his forehead, hoping that her cool hand would help make him more comfortable. "What be your name?" she asked, quietly, too quietly she had feared for the boy did not respond at once._

"_Theodore Bennet," he replied gruffly, still staring into her eyes…it calmed him…made the pain seem less._

"_Lady Sarah!" someone shouted. Sarah turned quickly, seeing a servant rushing in her direction. "What be thou doing here?" she asked Sarah quickly. She grabbed Sarah's arm and tried to pull her from the man, but she would not have it._

"_Please mistress," the servant replied, "Your father would be most displeased if he were to see you out here. Lord Emory would not be pleased at all."_

_Sarah looked down at the boy, he had fallen unconscious, his grasp on her arm slipping. "Margaret," she said standing and taking the woman's hand, "Take care of him please!" Margaret looked at the boy, "For me?"_

_Margaret looked up at her mistress seeing desperation and fear shining in her eyes, "It shall be done." She said, Sarah smiled, "Now be off with you!"_

_And with that Sarah Emory_ _took off towards the castle, looking back just before she shut the door to see Margaret and another servant moving Theodore. She rested a hand to steady her fearful heart…_

France 1847

_The house was frantic with various people and servants rushing about trying to get ready for her arrival as the mistress had instructed. _

"_Hurry! Hurry! Put that there!" The mistress shouted in French to a servant before she walked to the nearby mirror to make sure her dark brown hair had stayed in place in the intricate twists and braids that was the style now. _

_She smiled at her appearance turning to face her husband when she saw him stalk by trying to fix his scarf tie. She rushed over to him, her lime green dress making ruffling sounds against the wooden floor. _

_Her husband sighed annoyed, rolling his blue eyes as his wife fixed his black scarf tie before tucking it into his black button up vest. "I do not see why she must come stay with us!"_

_His wife rolled her eyes at that; he was such a silly man, "Her husband died! She is my friend; I can not just leave her."_

_He shook his head, going over to the mirror his wife had just been at, he looked himself over; making sure that his brown hair was parted and stuck the right way. He stood, brushing off some dust from his grey stripped pants before crossing his arms, the white slightly billowy sleeves puffing up like pillows for a moment. "But why must she stay here?"_

_His wife shook her head at her him, "Please be nice. It will only be for a few weeks."_

_She smiled softly at him, she had often times wondered why her parents had chosen them to be married to each other. But she sighed, it was alright, they had been friends since they were children…it could have been worse…_

"_Fine," her husband said, "I will be polite, but do not expect anything mor…" A knock on the door cut off his next words, her eyes widened. _

"_She is here!" she shouted, she was here! She ran to the door throwing it open to reveal a small blonde standing there, hands neatly folded before her. Her red and brown vertically stripped dress fit her flawlessly, her corset making her womanly figure stand out just a tad bit more. There was a red ribbon that went along the seam of the dress, from her shoulders till they met at her navel area and split once more on her skirt, a few brown pompoms scattered along the ribbons. She looked up, sky blue eyes clashing with his own for only a moment before his wife launched herself at their guest._

"_Soleil!" she shouted, hugging the woman, who's gaze still remained locked with his own as if neither had the power to break the gaze. "How are you?"_

_That seemed to stir the woman from her trance. She turned to his wife, "Genevieve!" she said, pulling her back into another hug. "I am doing…well…"_

_Genevieve nodded, taking the woman's hand and pulling her slightly towards her husband. "Come, come, you must meet my husband." She let go of her hand as soon as they were a foot from her husband. She took a step towards him, so that she would be in the middle of the two. "This is my husband, Treves Beaufort," she said turning from her friend to her husband. Her friend nodded her head slightly, her shoulder length wavy hair falling around her as she did. She then turned to her husband, "This is Soleil Everard."_

_Treves snapped out of his trance as well, taking a step back as he reached out and gently took hold of Soleil's right hand with his own. He bowed slightly, raising her hand to his lips. He gently kissed it, before looking up at her as he stood, "Enchanted, madam."_

_She smiled softly and blushed. She was about to reply when Genevieve rushed her out of the room taking frantically about all the things they had to catch up on. Treves watched them go, eyes never leaving Soleil's form until she disappeared behind the living room door…_

Massachusetts 1953

"_Mr. Brando!" A voice called._

_One tall brown haired man on the crowded street started to walk faster as he heard his name being called from behind him. This particular man, not more than 25 years old, had already been hounded by reporters all day, questioning him about his plans for his senator-ship. He placed his hands inside the pockets of his long grey jacket as he made his way past busy people. He was thankful that it hadn't rained, or snowed, as the forecasts had predicted. It would have ruined his navy blue wool suit and his pressed white shirt, the last impeccably good pair that he had. _

"_Mr. Brando!" the voice called again, catching up to him a he raised his arm on the street corner to hail a cab._

"_What?" he asked, trying not to sound snappy or seem impolite as he refused to turn around._

"_What do you plan to do about the school districts in Boston?" A voice, clearly female asked. He rolled his eyes, shaking his head. The person tapped him on his shoulder…quite hard… "Well? What are you going to do?"_

"_I'm going to…" he said quickly, spinning around to tell off the nosy report when his words failed him. Standing before him was a small, petite blonde haired woman. She was dressed in a long brown wool pencil skirt that went down a little past her knees, a light pink cardigan, and a short dark red wool winters jacket complimenting her out fit…but that wasn't what he was looking at. Her eyes…they were the perfect shade of blue, like that of a cloudless sunny day. "I…I'm going to do what ever you want me to…" he said feeling like an idiot as soon as the words left his mouth. He hadn't intended to say that._

_The woman's hands dropped slowly from off her hips where she had originally placed them. Normally she would have given the arrogant jerk a piece of her mind for thinking he could get away with being rude with a pick up line like that…but she couldn't. His eyes, sparkling sapphires had drawn her in, she couldn't respond just then. She felt a blush creep into her cheeks as she looked down, smiling softly. Why was she acting like that?_

_He shook his head, noticing that the woman before him was blushing. A car horn honked behind him as he glanced up to see a cab. He looked back at the woman who had seemed to have gotten her blushing under control. "Tom Brando," he said, holding out his hand._

_She smiled more, looking up at him, "I know," she said, there wasn't a soul who didn't know who Tom Brando, Massachusetts best shot for a senator, was. "I'm Susan Elliott."_

"_My pleasure," he said as they finished shaking hands, and reluctantly let their hands drop. The car horn honked again, he glared at the driver briefly before turning back to Susan. "Would you like to…go get some coffee or something…talk about the school districts?" he asked, before trying to bait her, "I'm not to up-to-date on their conditions."_

_She nodded vigorously as he opened the cab door for her, "I'm a teacher at one of the Elementary Schools, just a few blocks from here." It hadn't snowed as was predicted, but the air was chilly, you could practically see the words as they left your mouth. "We need a lot of help," she said sliding in._

_He followed quickly, "I'm all too happy to oblige…"_

Albuquerque, New Mexico 2006

A snapping noise forced Troy, Taylor, Gabriella, Ryan, and Sharpay's eyes to fly open to the laughing faces of their friends. They rubbed their eyes wondering what was going on before looking around at the crowd of people in the room. It all came back to them now; they were in the Avery Park Comedy Club, celebrating the end of their Senior year winter holidays before school started a few days later. They looked at each other quickly before looking out at the audience and blushing, knowing that they all must have done something really embarrassing while they had been hypnotized.

The hypnotist bowed before holding out her hands towards the five teens on stage, the audience erupted in applause as they walked back to meet with Chad, Kelsi, Zeke, and Jason. They sat down as the rest of the crowd started to get up, the show was over.

Gabriella's face was a bright red as she tried to get Chad to tell them what they had done.

"You really didn't do anything embarrassing Gabby," Chad started, standing up and putting on his coat a moment later, "Taylor on the other hand…" he laughed.

"What?" She asked, standing as well, "What did I do?"

Chad just gave her a look before laughing once more "Tell me!" she whined.

Chad shook his head, "I'll tell you the next time you give me lap dance like that…" Taylor's eyes widened with the implication of what Chad had just said. Her face flushed as she hid her face behind her hands. "It wasn't that bad," Chad said grinning wickedly as he put his arm around her shoulder.

"Shut up," she muttered, removing a hand long enough to playfully punch him before putting it back on her face.

"You didn't really do anything embarrassing," Kelsi reaffirmed to Gabriella as Troy helped her with her jacket. "Just basic stuff that she did to everyone."

"What about me?" Ryan asked eagerly, he had been the most excited one to be hypnotized. He loved being able to goof off, and now he'd had an excuse if he made an idiot out of himself. "What did I do?"

Everyone who hadn't been hypnotized looked at each other for a brief moment before bursting out laughing. "Ryan you were the greatest of them all," Zeke said.

"Yeah man," Jason added, "You were a hoot. Every time he told someone else to do something, you'd do it."

"Really?" Ryan asked a proud grin on his face. He held the door open for an elderly couple that was just before them. The old woman chuckled while the man gave him a glare. He looked questioningly at his friends as they passed the door.

"That was the dude _you_ gave a lap dance to," Chad remarked, laughing once again, getting a laugh from everyone as Ryan blushed.

"What about Sharpay?" Ryan asked, trying to get the spotlight off him for a minute, sure that Sharpay must have done something, she was always outgoing.

"She didn't do anything," Zeke said before his eyebrows furrowed in thought, "Now that I think about it, neither did Troy."

"Well that's good," Troy said, "I definitely didn't want to do anything embarrassing.

"No," Jason said, shaking his head as they followed the crowd down the hallway, "You guys literally didn't do anything…at all."

"What?" Sharpay asked.

"Yeah," Kelsi said, "The hypnotist put you all into that trance thing, you know, made you relax and 'free your mind' and all. You both opened your eyes but didn't do anything."

"Yeah, you guys just kinda stared out into space," Chad confirmed, "It was kinda creepy, you didn't even react to questions the hypnotist asked or when she made you guys see everyone in the nude…Taylor, by the way, thanks for the compliment."

Taylor blushed once again and pushed her way outside as the gang followed. Troy and Sharpay glanced at each other briefly, why hadn't they done anything? They both just shook it off, the hypnotist said that she couldn't make you do something you truly didn't want to, they figured they must just have a will of steel.

"Hey guys…" Gabriella started as they headed down the sidewalk towards their cars, "Why are my shoes on backwards?"

A/N – Good times with hypnotists…actually happened to my friends, the lap dance, the nude compliments, shoe switching, and someone doing everything even if it wasn't his command, lol. This story isn't Troypay now, but it definitely will be. I'm not going to update as quick as or as much as I did with Icebergs and Ice Queens. I have so many ideas for this story and I have to do some research for some chapters. I want it to be the best it can be, so I might take a little bit more time writing each of the chapters. Based on the summary of the story, do you think it'll be interesting?

Inspiration from Scorpion King/The Mummy, Ancient Rome, Romeo and Juliet (loosely), and just some other romance thing-a-ma-bobs…don't own any of it…

P.S. Soliel, pronounced So-lay.


	3. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

A/N – Little scenes in Italics are flashbacks/memories. I'm not sure if they will appear in this chapter or not, this is basically just the start of their pasts surfacing. Later chapters will become more intense with Troy and Sharpay actually slipping into their past selves. Enjoy!

Sharpay Evans was awoken from her slumber by the annoying ringing of her alarm clock. She groaned, rolling over to shut it off but was met only with air. She sat up in bed, staring at her bed side table, wondering where her alarm had gone…She looked across her room and rolled her eyes at herself.

'Of course,' she thought to herself getting out of her nice warm bed. She had put the alarm across the room so she couldn't hit the snooze button anymore. She had a bad habit of accidentally shutting off her alarm in her sleepy quest for the snooze button. She hated rushing around in the mornings trying to get ready for school.

She yawned as she walked towards her closet, shutting off her alarm as she passed it. She threw open the doors to her small walk in closet, going in and looking through her designer outfits and custom made shoes. She sighed as she flipped past various cute shirts and gorgeous skirts…she couldn't decide what to wear.

She paused, that was something new…usually she always walked into her closet with an outfit in mind. She and Ryan had always dressed alike, similar colors and all…they'd done it since they were young and had just gotten into the habit. Her brows furrowed in thought, what colors were they supposed to wear today? She had never forgotten before…

She shook her head after a few moments before storming out of her room and over to Ryan's, maybe they hadn't picked colors yet…that would explain why she couldn't remember them. She knocked on his door, waiting only a second before throwing the door open. Just as she had expected, Ryan was still passed out in the bed. He always waited till the last minute to get ready.

She bit back a laugh at Ryan's appearance, he was sprawled out on his stomach, head where his feet should be, navy blue sheets practically falling off the bed, his mouth open with a small bit of drool dripping from it as he snored lightly. She shook her head, walking up to her brother and shaking him slightly, just enough to wake him.

"Huh…whah…" Ryan muttered as he lifted his head, wiping the drool off with is hand as he turned his head to see Sharpay kneeling by his bed. "Shar?" he asked, squinting through the sleep still in his eyes, "Whah are you doin in ma cheese cake factory?" he continued, quite obviously still asleep.

Sharpay did laugh this time, "I need to know what the colors for today's shipment are," she said playing along.

"Oh…" he said, nodding his head slowly. "I's…uh…prown…" he managed to get out before letting his head fall back onto his bed and back asleep.

Sharpay shook her head once more before heading back to her own room and into her closet. She headed over to her brown section, she was slightly OC when it came to her clothes…everything was color coordinated. She looked all her brown clothes up and down, sifting past all her sparkly tops and pants, all the feathers and fur, till she finally stopped on a simple brown skirt.

For some reason it stood out to her as she looked at it. Her mother had gotten it for her a few years ago, and Sharpay had rarely ever worn it…it was just to plain…but now…she felt like wearing it. Maybe she just wanted to give sparkles a break? She didn't know, but she pulled the skirt out nonetheless, getting a better look at it. It probably went down to he knees and would flow around her slightly; it had sort of a velvety jean look to it with ripples making up the texture. She smiled, she definitely would wear that skirt today…maybe see what kind of a rise she could get out of everyone in school. She went back to her pink section, the largest one of the bunch, looking through it for a good shirt to wear with the skirt. It was pretty cold out still, winter break had just ended. She pulled out a long sleeved button up sweater with a small snowflake embroidered in the pocket area. Perfect!

She got changed quickly, going over to her mirror to apply her make up before breakfast but stopped. She looked at her reflection…something looked different…something…but she couldn't place it. She shrugged it off pulling her makeup out of her purse and starting. When she finished she gave her reflection a questioning look, she hadn't used nearly as much make up as she normally did. It was just a light layer, really just some eye shadow and lip gloss to make her features stand out.

"Hmmm…" she muttered to herself, but she didn't think too long on it, she had to go work on waking Ryan up…a task which took at least ten minutes if done correctly…

Ryan and Sharpay Evans walked through the doors of East High, the halls were mostly empty as the majority of students were out side, catching up with friends, trying to make the break last as long as it could. Sharpay walked straight to her pink locker, spinning the combination with ease. Ryan huffed next to her, opening his locker as well. Sharpay shook her head, "Ryan stop being such a Drama King."

Ryan glared at her around his locker, "You woke me up early!"

"It was four minutes!" Sharpay threw back, laughing. Her brother gotta love him…but god forbid you wake him up even a second earlier than 7:50 and he'd bite your head off.

Ryan shook his head, ducking back behind his locker to hide the grin that Sharpay had gotten out of him. He straightened out his hat, a dark chocolate brown pimp hat with a think red ribbon wound around it. His red dress shirt was in perfect condition, not a wrinkle in place, as were his brown cargo pants. What could he say, he liked looking nice, it made him feel more…sophistical? No, sophisticated! That was it!

Sharpay got her books for the first few periods, checking her appearance quickly before shutting her locker and walking to the main doors of the school. She was about to go out and see if she could find Gabriella and Taylor, the three of them had become good friends since musical a year before, but then she saw the school bus pull up and she knew there would be no finding anyone soon.

Her thoughts were correct as soon as Troy Bolton stepped out of the bus. The crowd, nearly every student that was outside, surged towards him. Sharpay watched this happen rolling her eyes as she saw a few students shake his hand. 'Here comes the senator, surrounded by reporters as usual…why won't they leave him alon…' She looked away from the view before her, cutting off her thoughts. Where had that come from? Troy? A senator? 'Puh-lease,' she thought to herself, 'He barely managed to lead the team to the championships, like he'd be able to help lead the country…"

But still, she glanced back up as Troy led the group towards the school, where had that thought come from? She was so deep in thought that she jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Ryan standing next to her, "You ok?" he asked noticing her jump.

Sharpay's gaze landed on Troy, walking past her with the basketball team in tow. She followed him with her eyes as he headed down the hall, tearing them away when he was out of sight a moment later. She turned back to Ryan and smiled, "Of course!" she said happily before walking off…

Troy had had one weird day…That morning he had gotten up before his alarm, a very rare occurrence, and wasn't even tired, a rarer occurrence. He walked over to his computer chair, moving the clothes he had laid out the night before…yes he laid out his clothes. You would too if you had a habit of getting up with only five minutes to go before having to get to school! Anyway, he had sat at his computer and, instead of going on AIM like he'd do whenever he had time, he went online? That wouldn't have been as weird as it sounded if he hadn't gone to the new york times website. It would have been fine, just a little weird had he been looking up the sports section…but he hadn't…he'd actually _read_ the news…

After about fifteen minutes his alarm went off. He'd gotten up to shut it off and turned back to his computer, realizing just then that he had been reading the news. He threw an odd glance at his computer before shutting off the screen and walking to his closet. He pulled the door open and looked at his clothes. His gaze had drifted to the sweatpants and t-shirt he'd laid out, but he turned back to his closet.

For some reason he hadn't felt like wearing those clothes and looking like a slob. He pulled out a nice pair of dark blue jeans and a blue button up shirt. It reminded him later, when he looked in the mirror, of the outfit he had worn when he'd met Gabriella. He looked down at his choice of clothing…maybe that was why he felt like dressing so neatly? Was he excited to see Gabriella? They had been dating for a few months, since the summer, and he didn't really feel like he had to dress up to impress her. But he shrugged it off and headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

He'd finished and glanced up at his reflection, grimacing at the sight before him. His hair was a mess! He opened one of the drawers and pulled out a comb. He'd parted his hair and was in the process of combing it neatly to the side when he realized what he was doing. He stopped mid motion and looked closely at himself in the mirror. Since when had he felt the need to part his hair? His mother had always tried to get him to do that for picture day, but he'd never actually _wanted_ to do if for himself.

He shook his head, putting the comb back and running his fingers through is hair to get rid of the part and back to its natural state. He looked back in the mirror; still feeling like his hair looked a mess but refused to comb it.

He'd gotten to school; a crowd awaited him, much larger than the one that had last year. He smiled; he was comfortable surrounded by people. He shook some hands, did some hand shakes, bounced the basketball Chad had tossed him and led his team through the school. What could he say; he was the B-ball king, a natural born leader!

He'd been surrounded by the crowd for the rest of the day, in the halls, at lunch; during free period…He was surprised he was able to get to his locker with the amount of people following him. The crowd had lessened however after the final bell rang, he may be popular, but he wasn't popular enough to make people stay in school longer than they had to.

He'd been hanging by the main doors with Chad and the guys, just tossing the ball back and forth before practice started. They'd been laughing about all the things they'd done during the break. A bell rang again, signifying that it was 3 and teacher were allowed to leave, which also meant that it was time for the team to head to the gym to get ready for the practice that started in fifteen minutes.

They had just turned and started down the hall when Sharpay and Ryan made their way down the hall. Sharpay had her head up as she walked, eyes daring anyone to get in her way while Ryan talked on his cell. She reached the basketball team and continued walking as the parted for her, leaving her to smirk as she passed.

Troy's gaze had landed on hers as soon as she had reached the team and continued to follow her as she walked past them. He smiled softly to himself as the team parted for her, not wanting to touch her. 'Good,' he thought to himself, 'They should not touch her, she is too…'

His thoughts were ended suddenly as the team pushed past him since he hadn't moved. He looked around seeing the team walk past him. He looked out the main doors, seeing Sharpay and Ryan walking off before turning around and walking off. His thoughts returned to what he had just been thinking about…why didn't people want to touch Sharpay?

He knew people thought they shouldn't touch her for fear that they would 'turn to ice' also, but something about that didn't seem right to Troy. Whenever Troy saw her, Sharpay always gave off the vibe that she shouldn't be touched…not that she was untouchable…but that no one was supposed to touch her…'I wonder why…' Troy started to think when shouting caught his attention.

"Troy!" Chad called a little ways down the hall. "You coming?!"

Troy looked around once more, realizing that he had stopped walking in thought. He looked up, seeing Chad waiting for him by the boy's locker room entrance. He jogged down the hall, shrugging off any last lingering thoughts.

"Where was your head just now man?" Chad asked as Troy entered the room. He gave Troy a smirk, "Thinking about a certain brunette we know?" Chad had finally gotten over his issues with Gabriella and the whole Academic squad. They weren't that bad when you got to know them…not to mention he'd been dating one of them for nearly a year now…

"Nowhere," Troy replied, "My head's in the game." He said, trying not to admit to himself that he'd been thinking about a blonde instead of a brunette.

A/N – So I finally finished outlining pretty much the entire story, it sounds sooo cool, I can't wait to write it. I've finished most of my finals, I just have one more this Saturday then I get a month off from school, so I'll probably be writing non stop for a month.

Oh Yeah, My friend recently published a book. If anyone is interested in reading greek/roman myths in poem form, check out iuniverse(dot)com, Poems fit for an Emperor on under their bookstore. She gave me a copy; it's really good, really funny and accurate too. Check it out :)


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Sharpay yawned as she took her seat at the lunch table with her friends. She hadn't been able to sleep that night…or maybe she had? She woke up really tired and didn't remember anything she dreamed about, which never happened to her before, so she assumed that she hadn't really 'slept' last night. Which was unfortunate for her friends because that would make a very irritable Sharpay.

She twisted her plastic fork around her plate of mostly eaten macaroni and cheese. She wasn't very hungry, hadn't been all day. It might have just been that she wasn't a fan of the cafeteria's food, but she wasn't too sure, yesterday she'd brought her own lunch. She hadn't paid attention that much in class that morning…much like she wasn't doing right now…maybe she was sick?

"…dress? Or should it be the black one or the red one or the orange sweater? Sharpay what do you think?" Gabriella asked turning to her friend. Out of the group, Sharpay still had the best fashion sense. She would be the one to tell Gabriella which sweater to wear to her own birthday party.

Sharpay looked up at Gabriella just hearing the last part of the question. "What?"

Gabriella rolled her eyes, "Which sweater should I wear to the party tomorrow?"

"Party?" Sharpay asked, earning an odd look from Gabriella, she must have been really out of it to not remember the party.

"Yeah," Gabriella said, "My birthday party tomorrow night, what sweater should I wear?"

Sharpay shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, "It matters not," she said reaching out to pick up her water bottle. Her arm froze mid reach, just as she had lifted the bottle. Where did that come from?

Sharpay looked around the table to see everyone staring at her. She smiled uncomfortably, pulling the water bottle towards her, eyes looking down utterly confused.

"Huh?" Chad asked, trying to break the silence that surrounded the table.

Sharpay shot him a grateful look, "I mean, which ever sweater you choose will look great on you Gabby," Sharpay said, saving herself. Everyone made an 'o' with their mouths and went back to eating.

"Awww," Gabriella said giving Sharpay a hug, "Thanks Shar."

Sharpay gave a small smile; she still wasn't used to being this nice. Every time she was, she got this feeling inside of her that told her not to be, that they would just end up hurting her. She couldn't understand it, so she just ignored it. But it was hard, that had been the feeling she had followed for a while, it was the same feeling that got her labeled as the Ice Queen.

Sharpay bowed her head and went back to her school bought lunch, not noticing a pair of eyes still remaining on her.

Troy Bolton stared at Sharpay, as he had when his attention was snapped to her by her odd words. His head had been the first to snap in her direction, but not for the same reason as everyone else's. He saw her disturbed smile, mirroring exactly how he felt when those words left her lips.

A chill ran up his spine when he'd heard her utter those words. He didn't know why though. It made no sense that those words should affect him as they had. They filtered through his mind, even now, stirring up something…he didn't know what…It was like he'd heard those words before but he couldn't remember where…like he was _supposed_ to remember.

Sharpay glanced up for a moment, feeling someone's eyes on her. Her gaze locked with Troy's, she smiled flirtatiously at him, like she did with every other boy who looked at her, before going back to her food.

As soon as her eyes had landed on his Troy could have sword he'd felt a warm breeze drift across him. He looked around; all the doors and windows were closed to keep the chill out. There was no way a breeze could have gotten in, and no way for it to be a warm one either. He shook his head, he was getting paranoid. He went back to finishing his macaroni and cheese when the bell rang. He groaned as he set his fork back on his mostly filled plate before getting up with his friends.

They headed for the door, everyone getting smushed as they tried to squeeze through and get to their next class. Both Troy and Sharpay had drifted near the back of the line, having needed to put their trays back, and had been lost in the crowd. They didn't even notice the other until they had both tried to get past the door together, bumping into each other.

As soon as Sharpay's bare arm met Troy's goosebumps rose over their flesh and whispers flowed through their ears...

"…_but the advisors have instructed me that this is what must be done to stop the slave riots!" a man shouted._

"_It matters not what the advisors say!" a woman yelled in reply, "All that matters is what you believe is right!"_

Troy and Sharpay took a step forward out the door. Whatever they had just heard had only taken a moment to filter across their minds. They looked at each other, neither willing to admit that something odd had happened. They quickly looked away from each other and hurried down the hall in the direction of their respective classes.

Troy still had goosebumps from his brush with Sharpay when he went to basketball practice that afternoon.

"I still can't believe you tried out for the musical," Chad said as he and Troy passed the ball back and forth in practice.

"To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do." Troy said nonchalantly as he passed the ball back to Chad. Chad started to laugh while Troy had a serious face on, it was almost as if he said things like that everyday.

"Oh yeah?" Chad asked tossing him the ball once more, "Who says that? Confucius?"

"Heraclitus," Troy replied quickly, tossing the ball back, "535-475 BC."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Troy stood from his crouched position, eyes wide with confusion.

"What?" Chad asked, utterly confused as to how his best friend could have known that. "How'd you know that?"

"I…don't know…" Troy said racking his brain to try to figure out where he'd heard that before. It was almost like he did know, that the information was at the tip of his mind but he couldn't reach it.

Chad laughed as he watched Troy's brows furrow in thought, he jogged over to him. "Forget it man. Let's play some one-on-one…"

And with that he pushed the ball into Troy's gut…

_His eyes widened as he looked into the eyes of the enemy, of those opposing his lord on his holy crusade. His enemy knocked his sword out of his hand, pulling back only enough to stab him in the stomach, penetrating his chain mail. The man pulled the crimson sword out of the boy, watching in disgusting pleasure as the boy fell to the ground, hands holding his wound. The blood was lost too quickly and the boy could feel himself falling to the ground as his last breath left his body, "Sarah…" he whispered as he fell, clutching a silver cross around his neck…_

"Troy!" A voice shouted snapping him out of his daze.

He looked up from the yellow wood of the gym floor to see Chad looking at him in worry. "What?" he asked, noticing that his throat felt dry and scratchy.

"You ok man?" Chad asked as a few more of the team walked over to him.

"Yeah man," Jason said, "You don't look so good…you look a little pale…"

Troy looked at each of his teammates before looking down at the ball in his hands and nodding, "I think…I'm just going to go sit down for a minute…be right back, "And with that he dropped the basketball and walked towards the locker room.

He walked into the bathrooms, looking at his reflection in the mirror, he did look very pale. He was sweating as well, a line layer of it coating his brow, matting some of his hair to his forehead. He took a few deep breaths as he turned the cold water on in the sink below him. He ran his hands through the water, noticing that he was shaking slightly.

He looked back up at his reflection as he put some cool water behind his neck and on his forehead. He took a few more deep breathes before shaking his head, getting rid of what had just happened. He shut off the water, shaking his hands out before jogging back into the gym to join his friends…

A/N – A little short, I know. It would have been shorter, I was going to cut if off after the lunch scene but I thought that was too short…Next chapter should be longer…start of actual Troypay-y-ness…


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

A/N – I do not own any of the songs that appear in this chapter…wish I did though…

Gabriella was so hyped for her party that night! She, Taylor, and Sharpay had met right after school to get to work decorating for the party. Nearly three hours later they collapsed on one of the couches that they had pushed against the wall and took in their handy work. Silver and white streamers were crisscrossed across the ceiling with snowflakes and paper baubles hanging through the netting. There was tinsel lining all the hard surfaces of the room, from the book shelf to the small corner table.

There were two white balloons hanging over the fireplace where two microphones were set up. Gabriella had planned to have a small Karaoke contest that night, the winners would get the balloons popped over them and confetti would pour out of them. Their gaze continued across the room, there was mistletoe hanging from the entrance to the room, Sharpay's idea of course. The whole theme of the party was Christmas, snow flakes, and winter, so there had to be mistletoe.

There was a table set up across from the couch with a silver table cloth over it, silver cups with white snowflakes lined against the wall while matching plates and napkins were next to it, just before the food. All winter themed. It turned out that Taylor was a chemist in the kitchen as well; she loved mixing different things together to make something new and tasty. There were sugar cookies, apple pie, sandwiches cut into holiday shapes, a cake in the shape of a snowman, some eggnog (non-alcoholic), and a fruit cake that actually tasted good!

They had all pooled their talents to make the party great. Taylor brought the food, Sharpay brought the decorations, and Gabriella brought the house. The room looked great; they had some white cloth draped on the walls. There were silver beads hanging from the door ways and the floor was a complete white with the new carpet that Mrs. Montez had gotten over the break. It was amazing to the girls that she would risk it getting stained by letting them have the party there.

But she was letting them and that was all that mattered. Now the girls just had to get changed. Gabriella had decided to make the party a black and white affair…or silver, just to make her clothes picking easier. She had a beautiful white baby doll dress with a slight corset that she borrowed from Sharpay with black ties. Taylor was wearing something similar to what Sharpay had worn to the championship game, a white tank with silvery grey jeans. Sharpay had on a silver spaghetti strap shirt on with a sheer white bell sleeved shirt over it, a small tie around the bust making it flow from that line, and a black jean skirt that went just above her knees on with knee high black boots.

Compared to the other girls she looked…well…plain. But the girls didn't have time to think on that, the rest of the party goers had started to arrive. Everyone looked great! It wasn't really a formal party or anything, but no one came dressed like a slob. Even Chad looked good with his white basketball uniform and jacket on. Troy made his way over to Gabriella, who was talking with Sharpay, a small gift in his hand.

"Hey Gabs," he said, wrapping his arms around her, holding the gift in front of her.

"Hey Troy!" Gabby said, turning to hug him, "Thanks!"

"Hey Troy," Sharpay said softly.

"Hey Sharpay," Troy said glancing up at her. He quickly looked away as Gabriella took his gift and went to go put it on the gift table.

Troy and Sharpay stood in an awkward silence, neither looking at each other. Gabriella came back, wrapping her arms around Troy's waist as he put his arm around her shoulder; he glanced at Sharpay and looked away again. He couldn't look at Sharpay, for some reason when he looked at her he felt…guilt… He didn't know why, but he didn't like it.

But still…he couldn't keep his gaze away. He looked down at where she had stood to find the spot empty. He looked up just a little to see her walking across the room to greet Ryan, dressed in his white attire with his white caddy hat.

"Hey Ryan!" she shouted as she gave her brother a hug. She loved her brother; he was the only person who really got her, who knew her.

"Hey Shar!" he replied, hugging her back. He looked around the room, taking in all the work the girls had put into it. Sharpay had talked non stop about all their ideas yesterday and he was glad that he actually got to see it for himself. "Place looks good."

"Thanks!" she said, laughing as Ryan stepped past her to head to the snack table, like the typical male he was. Her gaze drifted away from her brother and back to where Troy and Gabriella were laughing with Taylor and Chad. Gabriella looked over at her and waved, one which Sharpay returned with a sad smile that couldn't be seen from where Gabriella was. She put her hand down as Gabriella turned back to their conversation.

Her smile faded into a small frown, every time she saw Gabriella with Troy she felt…jealous? No, that wasn't quite the feeling…it was more…betrayed? But she really didn't know why she should feel that way, Troy and she had never gone out or anything, unless you count the stupid little kid crushes where you say you'll marry someone when you get older.

Sharpay's thoughts started to drift to that time, long ago when she and Troy had actually been friends. They'd met in kindergarten, on the first day of school. She had gone with Ryan, both wearing matching red outfits. The teacher had instructed them to find seats and the only two that Sharpay could find that were close to each other was next to Troy and Chad. She had walked shyly over to them and asked if they could sit there. Chad had laughed at them and said he wouldn't be caught dead sitting next to a girl, but Troy on the other hand…Troy had turned to agree with Chad, she could see that he had, but he stopped.

He'd looked straight into Sharpay's eyes and she looked into his. They both started to smile and blush, Troy had said it was fine with him if Sharpay sat with them. Chad reluctantly agreed, as long as Ryan sat next to him and not Sharpay. Troy had eagerly agreed, pulling out a seat for Sharpay like his mother had told him was gentlemanly.

They had talked, and drawn, and played together all day. They even shared their snacks, Troy had cookies and Sharpay had apple wedges. Sharpay smiled at the memory…that was the day she'd gotten her first kiss…Ok, so she'd been like what? Four? Five years old? It still counted to her. She'd fallen off the monkey bars during play time and Troy had run over to her to see if she was ok. She'd scrapped her elbow and was crying, Troy offered to kiss it to make it better like his mommy did, but Sharpay had insisted it hurt too much to touch. So…Troy made up for it by giving her a quick peck on the lips…he's been so cute and nice then…he still was…but things were different…more complicated than in kindergarten. They'd been friends for a year, till first grade and the cootie epidemic started. After that Ryan was her only friend but she suspected that, had someone not told him that cooties weren't contagious for siblings, he would have abandoned her too.

She was brought out of her wandering thoughts by Gabriella telling everyone to get into a circle. She smiled to herself as she recalled what they had come up with involving a bottle and a member of the opposite sex…that was why Gabriella had made sure an even number of boys and girls showed up at her party.

Sharpay took her seat as Gabriella stood before everyone, trying to get their attention. "Taylor!" She shouted, "Bring in the bottle!"

…that definitely got their attention…

Everyone started to whisper amongst themselves as Taylor handed Gabriella the bottle and she set it in the middle of the circle. "Now," she said, sitting back in her seat at the head of the circle, "Each boy or girl will spin the bottle until it lands on a member of the opposite sex. After that you'll both…"

"Uh…Gabby…" Kelsi said from her position next to Gabriella, "I…I don't know if I'm comfortable enough to…you know…to…"

Gabrielle feigned confusion; she knew what everyone was expecting her to say, which explained why they were so shocked by what she said next, "Not comfortable enough to sing?"

The eyes of just about every member of the circle widened at this, "Sing?" Kelsi asked.

Gabby nodded, "Yup, once the bottle lands on someone of the opposite sex, you go to our little makeshift stage over there…" she pointed to her fireplace, with its huge hearth, it probably could have actually been a stage, "…and sing a duet. Once you finish, you get to leave the circle. Whoever gets the loudest clapping gets the prize." Her gaze drifted to the two balloons above the mics…no one knew what the prize was...she grinned inwardly.

She looked around the circle; no one seemed to object to it too much. Even Chad agreed to it…after Taylor smacked him upside the head. And with that, the game began. Kelsi was given the honor of the first spin. It landed on Zeke. Jason gave her a thumbs-up as they made their way to the stage and Gabriella went to start the song. It was a random one that her Ipod Shuffle picked out from her 'Couples' play list. If they didn't know it, a new song was played, but they knew 'Don't go breaking my heart', who didn't?

They were…alright…off key since neither of them were the singing type, but everyone clapped nonetheless. Next was Jason's turn since he was next to Kelsi, it landed on Martha Cox, the hip hop academic. They attempted 'Ain't no mountain High enough.'

After some other guest performed some really bad renditions of songs, romantic and not, Chad and Taylor had gone, the first of their friends so far to actually get paired with the person they liked. They sang 'Oh Baby, Baby' and then it was time for Gabriella to spin. There were only three other people left in the circle besides her, Troy, Ryan, and Sharpay. She spun the bottle, obviously hoping to get Troy…but as luck would have it, the bottle landed on Ryan.

Not a bad partner to have, he had been after all, the leading male in the musicals. Sharpay and Troy glanced at each other before setting their gazes firmly on the two as they got up on the stage and Shakira's 'Hips Don't Lie' started to play. Gabriella had had to change it from La Tortura, since Ryan had no idea the exact words to the song. They were really good, _really_ good…but no one clapped as loudly as they could have…they wanted to see what Troy and Sharpay would do…

The glanced at each other once again before sighing and getting up on stage. They waited a moment before Gabriella's Ipod started to play a song. She asked them if they knew it, they both did, which was a surprise to everyone…not many people would expect Basketball King Troy Bolton and Ice Queen Sharpay Evans to know 'Bring Me To Life' by Evanescence.

"How can you see into my eyes like open doors," Sharpay started, looking anywhere but at Troy, "Leading you down into my core, where I've become so numb without a soul my spirit sleeping somewhere cold until you find it there and lead it back…" she glanced at Troy, feeling his eyes already on her, "…home."

"Wake me up!" Troy sang, tearing his eyes away from Sharpay and looking back at the audience.

"Wake me up inside," Sharpay sang, doing the same.

"I can't wake up!"

"Wake me up inside…"

"Save me!"

"…call my name and save me from the dark…"

"Wake me up!"

"…bid my blood to run…"

"I can't wake up!"

"…before I come undone…"

"Save me!"

"…save me from the nothing I've become…" She glanced at Troy who glanced back at her before looking away.

"Now that I know what I'm without you can't just leave me. Breathe into me and make me real…  
bring me…" Her gaze drifted once more to Troy, but this time he stared back, "…to life."

"Wake me up!" Troy sang, staring Sharpay down, as if daring her to look away. She didn't and their gazes remained locked on one another even as they sang into their mics still stuck on the stands.

"Wake me up inside!"

"I can't wake up!"

"Wake me up inside…"

"Save me!"

"…call my name and save me from the dark…"

"Wake me up!"

"…bid my blood to run…"

"I can't wake up!"

"…before I come undone…"

"Save me!"

"…save me from the nothing I've become!"

"Bring me to life," This was the first time Sharpay looked away…but she didn't. She closed her eyes, head cocked to the side, swaying to the beat as she sang her part softly, pulling the mic from the stand.

"I've been living a lie," Troy sang, not taking his eyes from her serene form, but taking the mic off as well, "there's nothing inside."

"Bring me to life."

Sharpay's eyes snapped open just before the song started again, staring deep into Troy's as they both moved closer and closer to each other as she sang, "Frozen inside without your touch without your love darling only you are the life among the dead!"

"All this time I can't believe I couldn't see, kept in the dark but you were there in front of me," Troy sang staring into her eyes with startling intensity that even the audience could feel as he walked towards her…nearly stalking towards her like a lion would its prey…forcing her to take a few steps back.

"I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems got to open my eyes to everything," Something snapped within her as Sharpay stood her ground though, staring back at him with equal intensity as she pushed her way back towards him, making him move back as well…challenging him like no one had…

Troy's eyes narrowed unconsciously at Sharpay's actions, "Without a thought without a voice without a soul," he sang, circling her.

"Don't let me die here," she continued, their shoulders were touching as they circled one another, staring the other down.

"There must be something more!"

"Bring me to life!" Sharpay said, taking a step or two away from Troy to the beat. The song was getting intense; if she didn't put distance between herself and Troy…no one knew what might happen…

"Wake me up!"

"Wake me up inside!"

"I can't wake up!"

"Wake me up inside…"

"Save me!"

"…call my name and save me from the dark…"

"Wake me up!"

"…bid my blood to run…"

"I can't wake up!"

"…before I come undone…"

"Save me!"

"…save me from the nothing I've become!"

"Bring me to life!" She sang, as Troy stepped closer to her like she had before.

"I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside," Troy sang, microphone arm dropping to his side as he stared into Sharpay's sky blue eyes while she did the same to his sapphire ones.

"Bring me to life! To life!"

They stared at each other a moment longer, time seeming to slow as the music stopped and the crowd erupted in applause. Both of them were breathing heavily...Troy took a step closer to Sharpay when suddenly flecks of gold, silver, and white fell onto their heads. The balloons had been popped…they won!

Sharpay tore her gaze away from Troy to look out at the audience. She glanced back at him before rushing of the stage and as far away from him as possible. She'd managed to avoid Troy and the rest of their friends for most of the night; it wasn't until she made her way over to the drinks that she was cornered.

"Sharpay!" Gabriella shouted as she and Taylor practically ran to her by the refreshment table. "You were great!"

"Yeah, you definitely were," Taylor said brushing some of the confetti from Sharpay's hair.

"Thanks," Sharpay said shyly, she always hated getting compliments…though she'd never admit it. She reached out for a cup to go pour herself a drink.

"Oh!" Gabriella said, holding out one of the two cups she had in her hand, "Here, I made it myself!" she said, smiling as Sharpay took it.

"Thanks!" she said, reaching out and taking the offered drink. She looked down at the soda, noticing the bubbles starting to form on the sides of the cup. She was about to raise the cup and take a sip, but the motion stopped her. The liquid sloshed around in the cup, some colors rippling across the surface. She squinted slightly as the sloshing stopped, she watched as the colors came together and a small familiar scene, almost like a movie, played across the surface…

_A beautiful blonde woman came slowly down the stairs of an old looking house, pausing in the entrance to the dining room as she spotted her brown haired friend sitting at the table lost in thought, a cooling cup of tea before her._

"_Genevieve…" the woman said, walking into the room, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder and sitting next to her. "Are you alright?"_

"_Hmm?" Genevieve hummed looking up, seeing her 'friend' sitting next to her. "Oh, um…yes, I am fine." _

"_Are you sure?" the woman asked, worry in her voice._

"_Soleil I am fine," Genevieve re-emphasized. There was a lag in the conversation as Genevieve glanced down at her tea. "Would you like some tea?" she asked moving to stand up._

_Soleil nodded, "I'll get it," she said moving to stand as well._

"_No!" Genevieve shouted, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder, telling her silently to stay seated. "You are my guest, I shall get it."_

_Soleil nodded, watching as her friend walked out of the dining room and around the corner towards the kitchen. Genevieve rummaged through the cabinets, taking out some tea leaves to put in the small cup of hot water that she had gotten out. She put the leaves in and went to shut the cabinet when something caught her eye. It was a small bag of powder…arsenic…that Treves had purchased to kill the mice that they had noticed around the house._

_She glanced back out the doorway before taking the bag out of the cabinet and looking at it thoughtfully. She looked from the bag to the cup and back quite a few times. She dropped the bag to the counter, putting a hand to rest on her forehead. She moved her hand down to her chin after a moment, eyes open but unseeing as something played across them. She closed her eyes for a brief moment before opening them, determination set in them. She grabbed the bag of arsenic, taking the small spoon that she had set by the cup, and scooping some of the powder into the cup. _

"_Genevieve!" Soleil called, "Do you need help?"_

"_No," Genevieve called, hurriedly rolling up the top of the bag and shoving it in between her sugar and flower holders. She took the spoon, quickly stirring the poison. She grabbed the still steaming cup and walked slowly back to the dining room. "Here we are," Genevieve said, placing the cup before her 'friend'._

"_Thank you Genevieve," Soleil said, smiling gratefully at her friend, "It has been so long since I've had some of your famous tea."_

_Genevieve smiled softly as she watched Soleil take a sip of the drink. She raised her own cup to her mouth, smiling wickedly behind it as she nodded to her friend and took a sip. She placed her cup down, watching expectantly as Soleil's expression shifted into one of confusion…then illness…_

"_Are you alright Soleil?" Genevieve asked, standing up as her friend did._

"_I…yes…I am just…" Soleil started, hand pressed against her forehead._

"_Perhaps I should call Treves, have him help you to your room," Genevieve said, "You do not look well…" Soleil nodded slightly, taking a stumbling step towards the stairs, nearly tripping over her chair. "Treves!" Genevieve called, watching as her husband ran down the stairs at her distressed cry._

_He took one look at the two women before him before rushing over to Soliel, "Soleil!" he shouted as she stumbled into his grasp._

"_I am just…feeling a bit…dizzy…" And with that she passed out into Treves' arms._

_He looked up at his wife, who wore a positively worried expression, "Genevieve go for the doctor!" he shouted, picking up Soleil and heading to the stairs._

"_Of course!" Genevieve called, rushing at once from the house. "Of course…" she whispered to herself, walking in the opposite direction of the town's doctor._

_Treves grunted slightly as he managed to open the guest room door, the room that Soleil had been using. He gently laid her upon her neatly made bed, "Soleil…" he whispered, brushing a piece of hair from her damp forehead. She had a fever and was shaking terribly at this point. _

_Her eyes fluttered open when his hand brushed her forehead. "Treves…" she whispered back as he took one of her hands in both of his, lifting it to his lips to kiss it. She smiled gently as her head fell to the side. Her eyes fluttered closed and remained shut._

_  
Treves' eyes grew wide, "Soleil!" he shouted, tried to get her to open her eyes once more, but she would not. He reached out, pressing a finger to her neck…no pulse…_

_His eyes started to fill with tears as he buried his face in her stomach, reaching up to hug her once last time…_

"Sharpay!" A voice called, tearing her gaze away from the cup and into the slightly worried glances of her friends.

"What?" she asked, shaking her head free of what she'd just imagined.

"Are you going to drink it or just stare at it all night?" Gabriella asked, laughing slightly.

"Oh…uh…no," Sharpay said, placing the cup down on the table beside her, "I'm not really that thirsty. Sorry..."

"It's ok!" Gabriella called as she and Ryan watched Sharpay walk off in a slight daze.

"I wonder what's up with her," Taylor remarked as she picked up Sharpay's cup and took a sip. "Mmmm, Gabriella, this is really good! What's in it?"

Gabriella smiled proudly, "It's my own special mix. Coke, cherry soda, and a little squeeze of lime!"

Just then Ryan spit out the water he'd been drinking. "Ryan!" The girls shouted, but he ignored them. "Did you just say lime?"

Gabriella nodded, "Yeah, why?"

Ryan looked at her in shock, "Sharpay's allergic to lime!"

Gabriella's eyes widened, "What!?" She looked at the drink in Taylor's hands, hardly able to believe that she had nearly poisoned one of her best friends. "Oh my god!" she shouted, she turned to Ryan, eyes begging forgiveness, "I'm so sorry! I…I didn't know!"

Ryan laughed slightly, trying to lighten the mood, "It's ok…" he started, Gabriella gave him an incredulous look, "No seriously, she probably wouldn't have drunken it anyway." Taylor gave him a confused look, "She's always been really…intuitive? I think? She always sort of knew when something had lime in it. Our granny once gave me and Shar a piece of key lime pie for Christmas once. Shar refused to eat it till I took a bite since I'm not allergic. I nearly spit it out when I realized it was key lime instead of banana cream like Gran told us."

"I should still go apologize to Sharpay…" Gabriella said as she started to walk off.

"Hey," Ryan said grabbing her elbow as she walked by him. She looked up at him as she was spun to face him, "She doesn't know," he finished, smiling a 100 watt smile that sent a little chill down her spine, "It's alright."

He let go of her arm, making some goosebumps rise on the spot where his hand had been from the cool air. He gave her a nod before walking off to go find Sharpay, it was getting late and they had to be home soon. Gabriella smiled softly as she watched him go before tearing her eyes from him; she shouldn't be looking at him! She should be looking at Troy, her boyfriend!

Where was Troy anyway? Her eyes searched over the occupants of the room before finally seeing him near the door laughing with Sharpay over their performance, bidding her goodbye as she and Ryan walked out the door, not even noticing the mistletoe they'd been standing under…

A/N – What was it that Genevieve saw that would make her poison her friend? You'll find out in later chapters…Next chapter is probably a little bit more about Troy and what he sees in a 'flashback', clues readers into just how close one of their past selves got to one another…tee hee hee.


	6. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

A/N – This chappy is probably going to be one of the few actual Teen rated chapters. The rest are pretty much rated T for language to come and scenes of death and stuff like that. But this one, near the end, has a boy being hormonal…and we all know what kind of thoughts that can lead to…

Troy walked into school the next day, barely stifling a yawn. He had had trouble sleeping last night, the events of Gabriella's party coming to his mind over and over. He had relived his song with Sharpay so many times; he couldn't understand why that stood out the most to him…even more than the small kiss that he and Gabriella had shared under the mistletoe before he left. It was just…that song was so intense…it was like they had connected or something…

He shook his head as he reached homeroom before plopping into his usual seat in front of Chad. "Hey man," Chad said, shaking Troy's hand, "So you got caught under the mistletoe too?"

Troy smiled slightly as he nodded; Taylor had practically dragged Chad under the mistletoe before he left with Troy. "Yeah," Troy started, "That was some party…"

"Hey…" He heard a voice say from the doorway, cutting him off. Troy looked up only to find himself in a completely different place…

"_Hey…" He glanced up hearing those words to see a blonde woman leaning against the doorway that led to his office. The lights were dimmed, mostly shut off, excluding his desk light, which was all the light he needed to finish signing his papers. There was a massive bookshelf behind him, stacked full with books, some read numerous times over. The floor was carpeted a navy blue while the walls were just a slightly lighter shade. He rested a hand on the dark surface of his messy mahogany desk and stared at the erethral creature before him, looking as beautiful as ever in the dim light._

"_Hey yourself," he said softly, turning in his chair to face her as she walked closer to him. She slid gracefully onto his lap, wrapping her arms around him gently. He hugged her back, wondering why she was there at that time of night. She pulled back and he could see that her eyes had a slightly red look to them…she had been crying a while ago. "What's happened?" he asked, a hand cupping her cheek, his thumb brushing just under her eyes, "Is something wrong?"_

_She shook her head smiling softly, "No nothings wrong at all…" she took a deep breath, "I just got back from the doctor's…"_

"_Why were you at the doctors?" he asked, shifting in his seat to get a better look at her. She did look a little pale now that he thought about it._

"_I haven't been feeling myself lately," she started, "and I wanted to see if they could find the reason."_

"_And?" he asked, fear showing through his eyes. She looked away, "What did they say?"_

_She reached into her purse, "I got you a card," she said, completely ignoring his fright filled questions as she put it in his hand. _

"_Sue," he started, trying to still his heart, "This isn't a time for jokes or…or cards…if there's something wrong…"_

_She placed a finger to his lip, cutting him off, "Tom…just open the card."_

_And so he did, eyes remaining on her until he'd pulled the small pink card out of the envelope it was in. He glanced down 'Congratulations!' was printed in gold lettering across the front. He looked up at her questioning, but she merely nodded back towards the card. He looked back down and opened it; the inside was blank with only Susan's neat writing. There was only one word on that page, but what it said brought the biggest of smiles to his face. 'Daddy'._

_He looked back up at her, eyes wide with shock and happiness, "You…you're…"_

_She nodded, "You're going to be a daddy!"_

_He stood up, scooping her into his arms as he did so she wouldn't fall to the floor. He hugged her close, grinning ear to ear, "You're going to be a mommy!" he whispered in her ear._

"_I know," she said, pulling away slightly, a worried expression on her face, "Are you mad?"_

_He shook his head, eyes filled with excitement, "Of course not! This is wonderful!" He again gathered her into his arms and spun her around the office._

"_We're going to have a baby…"_

"Troy?" A soft voice called, brining him back to the world of reality. "Are you alright?"

He looked up to see Sharpay sitting on his desk, much like she did every morning before homeroom started. He kept his gaze on her eyes, looking at him with such a worried expression that all he wanted to do was pull her into a hug and let her know he was fine.

The warning bell sounded just then, stopping him from rising and doing something that he knew he'd regret later. Sharpay gave him one more worried look before sliding off his desk and off to her seat. His gaze followed her even as Ms. Darbus entered the room.

Chad tugged on his best friend's sleeve, pulling him down into his seat as Troy turned to face Sharpay. He hit Troy's arm lightly, getting his attention, "You ok man?" he asked, eyes watching him in brotherly worry.

Troy nodded slightly, still in a daze as he turned slowly from Chad to face the front, a confused look in his eyes as he tried to figure out why he'd daydreamed that of all things…

Troy had been unnaturally quiet all day…even Chad noticed. He'd tried everything he could think of to get Troy to say more than three words, talked about everything he could think of…including _Broadway_ musicals! But nothing worked, Troy was in his own little world all day, he didn't even pay full attention to Gabriella during lunch, which had everyone worried.

"…believe it was Martha!" Zeke said walking over, the last bit of his conversation with Jason seeping into Troy's ears as he warmed up for practice. "She lost so much weight!"

"I know!" Jason added, "Kelsi said that she spent the summer at hip-hop camp and pretty much danced off a few pounds."

"And what about Taylor?" Chad said brining up his girlfriend, he loved getting praises for her. She was beautiful and smart, he was really glad he'd nabbed her before someone else did.

Jason and Zeke laughed as Troy's attention was finally drawn in fully, they were talking about the party last night. "Yeah, Taylor was cute too." Zeke said.

Chad narrowed his eyes in a joking manner, "Why were you looking at my woman?" he asked, sending the two boys into laughs as the rest of the team headed over to them.

"Gabriella looked good," Jason added, trying to get a reaction out of Troy. But none was to be found so the boys just went back to talking about the other cute girls that Gabriella had invited.

"Sharpay was kinda cute…" Troy started out of nowhere, eyes widening in shock at what he had just said as he stopped himself from continuing the words that wanted to come out of his mouth. The guys on the team stopped warming up for a moment to give him a look that clearly said 'Are you crazy?' "I…I mean…she looked pretty hot at the party last night…"

There was silence for a moment before Chad spoke, "Yeah man, I have to agree with you on that. She did look…well, I wouldn't say hot…I'd say…cool!" That got a laugh out of the team, they were still mostly stuck on Sharpay Evans equals the Ice Queen bit.

The guys got up and started jogging over to the hoops to shoot some balls while Troy stood there in thought. Sharpay _had_ looked really hot last night, he couldn't help but think that even while they were singing…especially when she had stared him down, challenging him. Her hair was down and wavy, not curled or straightened, creating almost a halo around her as she danced. Her lips just glossed over, making them appear tender and all the more kissable…and her neck…god her neck would be the death of him. When she'd cocked her head to the side during their song, it took all his will power not to attach his lips to the soft skin and get a moan from her delicate lips. Her shirt…during the middle of the song he wanted nothing more than to rip that sheer fabric off her…it taunted him, showing the flesh behind it but not letting him touch it…he almost couldn't take it! And her skirt and boots! They showed off her long legs, he could see the muscles rippling in her calves as they sang. All he could imagine was her strong dancer legs wrapped around his waist as he…

He dropped the basketball as his fantasy got a little out of hand. He shook his head, what was wrong with him!? Why was he thinking like that? He shouldn't be thinking things like that about Sharpay of all people! But he couldn't help it…the song was intense last night…it was almost like a connection had been formed…one that he really couldn't ignore no matter how much he tried. Something was pulling him to Sharpay, and try as he might, he found himself actually _letting_ himself be pulled towards her more and more each and every minute…

He bent down to pick up the ball, shaking those thoughts from his head. Sharpay was not his girlfriend! He had a girlfriend, a great, kind, sweet girl named Gabriella! A girl…a girl who would always agree with everything…who just wanted to fade into the background…who never stuck up for herself…No! He had to stop thinking about that! He loved Gabriella, she was the girl for him, and that was that!

He bounced the ball from the floor, gaining height till it bounced readily into his hands. He dribbled it over to where the guys were gathered, pushing each and every non-basketball thought out of his head.

A/N – Kinda short, the next chapter might have a little bit of Troypay…if you squint a little…it'll probably be mostly one sided thoughts and stuff…feelings starting to stir up. But the chapter after that will have a more comfortable Troy/Sharpay interaction, not quite couple but a little more than friends.


	7. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Sharpay Evans, the Ice Queen of East High, had never before in her entire life been so nervous to audition for the spring musicale. Never! But there she was sitting in the bathroom stall, taking deep breaths trying to calm the butterflies in her stomach…butterflies? It felt like there were pterodactyls or something flying around in there.

She couldn't believe that Gabriella had gotten her so nervous! Sharpay had managed to reclaim her lead status for the fall play…Troy was a great singer and actor, but Gabriella was too…awkward…She hadn't really been able to get into her character as Minnie, especially during the 'argument' scene with Arnold…she'd been horrible! Sure she could sing…but that was as far as her theatrical abilities went.

Sharpay had been thrilled when she'd gotten the lead in the fall…it gave her hope that maybe she could do the same for the spring musical…but now she wasn't too sure. She'd been in the auditorium, watching the rest of the students trying out during free period. Gabriella and she had managed to convince Taylor to try out as well, and they were to be the last three people going. Ms. Darbus had refused pairs tryouts due to the complications of last year.

Troy and Ryan had managed to convince Chad to try out as well; they had gone as one of the first. Sharpay smiled softly as Troy sang, she had always thought he'd been a great singer…even if she had only heard him sing once in kindergarten during a parent's day presentation. She had absolutely no doubts about his singing talents after last night. That song…that song had been so intense. The way that Troy had been staring at her…her heart sped up as she just thought about it. It was almost like he was looking straight into her, seeing all her feelings and secrets, everything she'd been trying to hide from everyone…she shook her head, she was being ridiculous…

Troy's song was the best of them all, he'd gone first out of everyone…all the boys had gone first, and then it was the girl's turns. It wasn't because the boys were 'better' than the girls, it was just that there were less of them than the girls so Ms. Darbus had arranged for them to go first and get them out of the way. Then the girls went, and finally it was Gabriella's turn. The three girls had drawn straws just before walking into the auditorium. Gabriella drew the shortest; she had to go first, then Taylor, leaving Sharpay to finish it up.

Gabriella had gone up once the girls were done, with encouragement from Taylor and her. She was great…which made Sharpay extremely nervous. She really wanted to finish up her senior year as the lead. She could have cared less about getting the leads in the other plays, but this year…this was _her_ year. But now she wasn't too sure…

As soon as Gabriella had come off the stage and Taylor stood to go on, Sharpay had stood, excusing herself to go 'calm her nerves' while Taylor went. As soon as she was out of the auditorium she bolted straight for the girl's bathroom and locked herself into her stall.

She felt so queasy she actually thought that she might have thrown up. She probably would have had it not been for another random girl that was in the bathroom. She really didn't need any more rumors to be spread about her. She shuddered slightly at the mention of rumors. Last semester, a particularly nasty rumor had gone around just after she broke up with Zeke. People had spread word that Sharpay had…well…lost her virginity to him…

She hadn't! She had been so upset that people had thought that about her! They had called her so many horrible things; even Zeke telling people that they had never done it didn't help. And now she really didn't need people to think that she was bulimic or something…

She sighed in relief as she heard the girl leave the bathroom. She took a few deep breaths before finally exiting her stall, eyes cast downwards with nerves. She always did that when she was nervous, she could never look anyone in the eye when she was scared or nervous…she didn't know why, she just didn't.

She put her pink purse on the ledge of the sink as she ran the cold water. She washed her hands off slightly, really just letting the cold water run through them. She placed both her hands on either side of the sink and stared at the running water for a moment, trying to collect her thoughts.

She closed her eyes, leaning down slightly as she took two more deep breaths. She reopened her eyes and lifted her head to check her hair and makeup…

Her eyes widened in shock as she stared at her reflection…the girl staring back at her wasn't her! It looked like her…but it wasn't…

The woman in the mirror had longer, more wavy hair than Sharpay did at the moment, and had a sort of crown in her hair with a snake on it. Black eye make up surrounded her sky blue eyes, ends of it reaching across her face towards her ears. She looked closer seeing not the light blue top that she had picked that morning, but seeing herself wearing a white bikini top like shirt with golden trim and a golden necklace. She looked past her reflection to see orange-tan bricks behind her with torches sticking out of them.

"Wha…" she started as she turned to look behind her…seeing only the partially open greenish doors of the bathroom stalls…She stared curiously at the stalls…almost as if they shouldn't have been there…like what she saw in the mirror was the real thing.

She looked back in the mirror and her brows knitted in confusion…her reflection…it was back…it was normal.

She squinted her eyes but still she remained the same, straight hair held back half up half down, with her blue top on and sapphire earrings. She shook her head, rubbing her eyes as she looked back in the mirror once more. Still, her normal reflection stared back at her.

She gave the mirror an odd look before grabbing her purse and rushing out of the room. 'Stress,' she thought to herself, 'it's just stress…and nerves…that's all…that's all it is…just stress…'

But even as she thought this, walking into the auditorium just as Taylor finished her audition, she couldn't help but feel like that wasn't true…

Troy was breathing heavily, sweat literally pouring down his face as he bounced the basketball up and down. He faked right, broke left, and took his shot. Swish!

"Troy!" his father shouted as he caught the ball that fell from the hoop.

Troy sighed, before turning to face his father; he could tell from his voice that he'd done something wrong.

"You were supposed to fake left, break right, and shoot! Not the other way around!" He shoved the ball into Troy's stomach, taking a deep breath before continuing, "You learned how to do that last year, it's time for something new!"

"Sorry…dad…" Troy said in between breaths. His dad was working him to the breaking point; he had been nearly all week. His mother had refused to let them practice over winter break so Jack Bolton felt like they had a lot to catch up on.

"Now get your head in the game and do it!" his father shouted, taking his place behind Troy as he turned around.

Troy took one more deep breath before faking left, breaking right, and taking his shot…he missed…he wasn't used to doing that! He'd been faking right, breaking left for a year now!

Jack Bolton angrily grabbed the ball and passed it to his son, "Again!"

Troy caught the ball, turning around once again. He faked left, broke right…but tripped on his feet and fell to the ground…

…_he hit the ground hard, the soft grass beneath him the only thing that eased his forceful decent. He looked up just in time to see his foe lift his sword and bring it down. He rolled to his left trying to escape the sword…but he failed. The sword pierced his side as he let out a yell of pain. He looked up when he felt the sword pull out of him. His adversary raised the sword once more, ready to strike again when an arrow flew at his heart and he fell to the ground. He felt someone grab his arm and pull him to his feet…a searing pain coming from his side…_

…he let out a strangle cry of pain as he placed his hands against his right side, applying as much pressure as he could to stop the bleeding…but…there was no blood…no wound…

Troy opened his eyes, which he had closed as he fell, to find himself lying curled in a fetal position, hands clamped to his side with his father kneeling next to him.

"Troy!" he called, dropping the basketball as he knelt by his son, "What's wrong?"

He pulled Troy's hands from his side, a confused expression reaching his face as he saw nothing wrong with his son.

Troy groaned, pulling himself out of his fetal position and sitting up slowly. "I…I don't know…" he said, breathing heavily, "I…think it was…a cramp…or something…"

Jack Bolton nodded, helping his son to stand. "You didn't stretch before we started did you?" Troy shook his head no, his father let out a curse, "Troy the whole point of stretching is so that something like this doesn't happen! You could seriously injure yourself!"

"I know…" Troy started, but he was cut off by his father.

"I know that you know, but you don't seem to remember. Sometimes I wonder if all this singing stuff had gotten to you."

"What?" Troy asked.

"Ever since you started this acting stuff, you've been neglecting your practicing, your workouts, the team…I'm starting to reconsider letting you tryout for the plays at all…"

"Dad you can't!" Troy shouted, following his father as he headed for the house.

"You need to get your head in the game!" his father shouted turning to face him, "And that's not going to happen if your head is somewhere else, like on some stage!"

"My head is in the game!" Troy argued.

"You could have fooled me." His father said, he took a deep breath, calming himself, "Look Troy, I know you love this singing thing…but Basketball has to come first. You can get into a college for basketball…not acting. Look at me," he held out his arms; "I wouldn't have gotten anywhere if it wasn't for basketball, that was the only thing that got _me_ into college! If I hadn't concentrated 100 on…"

"I'm not you dad!" Troy shouted in anger. His father had been trying to make him a clone of himself since before Troy could remember, "I can do both."

Jack sighed, "Just go wash up for dinner Troy…"

Troy shook his head at his father, pushing past him and heading up to his room. He hated how, just because it wasn't something that his father wanted to hear, he'd completely stop whatever conversation he was having.

Troy threw open his door, barely flinching as it hit the wall and slammed back shut behind him. He threw himself on his bed and screamed all his frustrations right into his pillow. Without even looking up, he slammed his radio on, listening as the next song started to play. He looked up once he realized what song was playing…it gave him an idea…

A/N – The rumor will actually play a role later on in the story…strains a few friendships even more…but you'll find out about that later…Next Chapter is more Troypay-y. There wasn't really any in this chapter…sorry…but the next one has a bunch.


	8. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

_She hummed softly to herself as she wandered about the house. Genevieve had gone into town to get something for Treves, which left Soleil pretty much bored and wandering around aimlessly. She was currently heading up the stairs to retire to her room when she caught a glimpse of something through a partially open door. _

_She pushed the door open quietly, making her way in to see Treves standing before an easel, painting. She leaned slightly to the side, eyes widening when she realized how beautiful the painting was. Treves was a painter! Why hadn't she noticed this before in her three weeks with the man? All the paint stains on his sleeves should have tipped her off._

_She shook her head, moving to stand just behind him on his side. "That is amazing," she said softly, causing him to jump, as he did not know she was behind him._

_Treves turned slightly to see Soleil standing beside him admiring his work, "I was inspired," he admitted, stepping back so that she could observe just what he had painted._

_She gasped lightly; it was a portrait of her sitting at the piano and playing a soft melody. "Treves…" she started, unable to think of anything more to say to express her awe._

"_This is…glorious!" she exclaimed finally finding her words, "You have a talent for this." _

_Treves shook his head in modesty, "It is nothing more than a hobby."_

"_But you have such a passion for it, I can tell," she said examining the other pieces in the small study. "Have you not considered being a painter?"_

_He shook his head, "No…Genevieve said I should keep my head on the ground and not in the clouds."_

"_No," Soleil said shaking her head at him, "You should let your head be in the clouds." He gave her a questioning glance; she smiled softly, "You can see more from up there."_

_He smiled at her words, "Besides," she continued, "If it is your dream, if you are passionate about it, you should put your whole heart and soul into it and it will never fail you."_

_He looked down in her eyes, seeing admiration and support shining though…a look that he had never seen from Genevieve, "And what, may I ask, about your playing?" he glanced at his portrait._

_Soleil laughed at that, "Now that…is a hobby…"_

A soft squeaky noise resonated from the rubber soles of his sneakers as Troy roamed the empty halls of the school. He'd woken up early that morning, planning to do so all weekend. He had been thinking a lot to himself about what he was planning to do, wondering if he should actually go through with it or not. He set his jaw and decided that he wasn't just doing this because of his dad, he needed to get it out…and this was the only way he could think to do it.

Troy went straight to his locker, pulling out an old notebook before turning and walking down the hall. He'd woken up that morning determined to get to school early and sign up…if he didn't, if he'd waited till he saw his friends, he was sure that he'd end up chickening out. He strode right up to the Talent Show sign up sheet next to the Drama announcements. He took a deep breath and signed his name…just under Sharpay's. He squinted his eyes in confusion, Sharpay never did the talent show…at least he didn't think she did.

He stared at the sheet a little bit longer till he heard a melody playing somewhere. He turned, realizing that the music was coming from the direction of the auditorium. He headed there, soon hearing a soft voice accompany the song. He peeked into the room, seeing Sharpay standing on stage, a CD player just before her, singing to the music that was playing.

"…when all the world is sleeping, I'd stay up and think of you. And I still can't believe that you came up to me and said, "I love you; I love you too." Troy watched in awe as she swayed to the music, just getting lost in the beat. She was amazing, her voice was beautiful, nothing like the forced show music she was so well known for, but actual and heartfelt. "Now I'm dreaming with you tonight. Till tomorrow, and for all of my life, and there's nowhere in the world I'd rather be then here in my room, dreaming with you endlessly..."

As soon as she'd finished and the music died down, Troy started to clap as he made his way to the stage. "Troy!" she exclaimed, blushing furiously as she shut off her player, "I…I didn't know anyone was here…what are you doing here so early?" she asked, sitting on the edge of the stage as he leaned against it.

"I was…signing up for the talent show…" he started, pausing as he expected her to laugh at him.

He was mildly surprised when she didn't, instead asking him a question, "Really? What song are you going to sing? You are singing right? I mean, you can't score touch downs on stage and…"

Troy laughed, interrupting her rambling, "It's baskets, not touch downs."

Sharpay stared at him for a moment wondering what he was talking about before laughing when she realized it, "I know, I think I've just been spending way too much time with Ms. Darbus."

Troy laughed even harder at that, "Any way, I am singing, but it was just some song I heard last night that I thought might be cool to sing."

"That great," she said, flashing him an encouraging, and gorgeous, smile, "I'm sure you'll be amazing."

Troy flushed slightly at that, he still wasn't used to people complimenting him on his singing. "Thanks, you're amazing too…I…I mean singer…you're an amazing singer…" He looked away, now a bright red at his slip of the tongue. He'd been looking into Sharpay's eyes and just…things just came out before he could stop them…he just couldn't think clearly…

Sharpay just laughed it off, "Thanks," she blushed slightly, "I wish my parents had your confidence in me." He turned to face her, a questioning look in his eyes. She rolled her eyes, "I love to sing, and I want to go to school to major in it, in acting and stuff…but my parents don't think I could do it…they want me to get a degree in something before considering acting."

"Sounds like my dad with basketball…" Troy mumbled.

Sharpay smiled softly, looking out into the empty auditorium. "I really hope I get the lead in the musical, it'll probably be the only singing I'll be doing for a while…"

Troy shook his head at that; he completely understood where she was coming from. His father was planning his future as well, get a basketball scholarship to a good college, star on the team, make it to the NBA and have a career in it. Period. Sometimes, late at night, especially after a rough practice, Troy would find himself wondering if his dad would lighten up on him if he broke his leg and ruined his chances at B-Ball.

"A wise woman once told me," he heard himself start, "that if you are passionate about something you should put your whole heart and soul into it and it can never fail you."

Sharpay smiled softly at the familiarity of the words before turning to face him, "Who told you that?"

"I…I don't know…" he said softly, looking away from her.

Sharpay was about to jokingly ask how he could not know who gave him such good advice, when she saw the notebook still tucked slightly under his arm. "What's that?" she asked, taking it gently and opening it.

"Oh…it's…nothing,…" he said, watching as she opened it and flipped through a few pages.

Sharpay's eyes widened in awe as she looked at the beautiful pictures on the paper before her. She glanced over at Troy for a moment, before returning her full attention to the sketches. The notebook was practically full of sketches of different things, from a basketball to a flower, from a desk in the classrooms to his friends, and even some more fantastical pictures of dragons and elves graced the pages as well. Sharpay turned the pages to the last few ones, fingers gently brushing over the last few sketches Troy had done.

Something stirred within her as she stared at the pictures. There was a sketch of the pyramids of Egypt, a piano, and a cross. Her fingers trailed over the details of the pictures, so realistic it seemed as if the places could just jump up off the page.

It wasn't until Troy gently reached over and shut her mouth that she realized it was hanging open. She turned to stare at Troy, "These…are amazing!" she exclaimed looking back at them.

Troy smiled a 100-watt smile at her praises, leaning over slightly to look at the pictures with her. "Thanks…"

She stared at him again, "You drew all these?"

He looked up; her eyes were filled with wonder, disbelief, and amazement. He nodded, watching in fascination as her eyes sparkled with some emotion Troy couldn't identify.

"When did you do these?" she asked, flipping through the pages once more.

"I started freshman year," Troy answered flipping back to the beginning, "And I just sketched when I was bored…" he showed her some sketches of desks and classrooms, "…or inspired…" he brushed past the sketches he'd made of his friends, lingering slightly longer on her own portrait than the other. "…or if I had a cool dream…" he showed her his last few sketches of dragons and elves and the pyramids.

"This is…wow…" Sharpay was speechless. She never knew that Troy could draw like that.

"I've been drawing a lot more," he mentioned, taking the book back from the shocked Sharpay, "I guess the trip that Darbus is planning to the art museum has me hyped."

Ms. Darbus had been talking about taking all the cast members and Drama club members to the art museum to 'get their creative juices going'. Everyone was pretty excited for it…missing a whole day of school…and basketball practice…got pretty much anyone hyped.

Sharpay shook her head at Troy, "And you say _I_ should follow my passions?"

Troy laughed, holding out a hand to help Sharpay off the stage. She hopped off and looked up at Troy to thank him but the words were lost in her throat. Their eyes met as they both looked down at their still joined hands…watching as they slowly intertwined their fingers together.

Sharpay looked back up at Troy, a tingling feeling traveling up her arm as she started to breath faster. Troy took a slow step towards her, staring at her with the same intensity as at the party last week. Sharpay opened her mouth to say something when the warning bell went off, startling her enough to make her jump back and let go of Troy's hand.

She turned quickly to retrieve her CD, trying to ignore the cold feeling that made its way into her skin…where the heat from Troy's hand had warmed her. She turned around to Troy, flashing him an awkward smile before rushing off up the isle.

Troy shook his head, looking up at the clock. Where had the time gone? When he'd gotten there he was sure that he'd had about a half hour before homeroom…now he only had five minutes. He stared up the aisle towards where Sharpay had left. He looked down at his hand, a tingling feeling that he'd gotten when his skin met hers, dieing off to a faint feeling, like a dream not quite remembered.

He shook his head once again before rushing out of the auditorium and off to homeroom.

A/N – The scene in the beginning is a flashback…well, a memory, but Troy and Sharpay haven't 'lived' it, or remembered it. It's more of a little ditty to explain the significance of their conversation. Anyway, I'm estimating the trip to the museum to be in about four or five chapters. So far, the next chapter looks like it'll be about Sharpay having another 'vision' thing of the past and getting a hint that she isn't the only one remembering things that never happened…


	9. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Sharpay sat in history class listening to Mrs. Stewart drone on and on about the ancient world. She yawned; she could really care less about who discovered what and what happened when.

"…duty of the senate was to…"

Sharpay sighed, rolling her eyes. They had spent the first half of the year going over the ancient world, mostly Egypt, China, and some European countries. Now they had moved onto Rome and Greece. Mrs. Stewart was a full-blooded Italian and took pride in her rich heritage. Now they were in line to spend the last half of the year learning all about the coliseum, the Parthenon, and Julius Caesar.

"…if you'll open your books to page 219, you'll see a picture of the Roman Forum the marketplace if you wil…"

Sharpay haphazardly threw open the cover of her history book, turning to the page that the teacher had instructed. Her eyes glanced over the page, seeing nothing more than a bunch of words and a picture of a decrepit area plastered in the middle of the page.

She looked up at Mrs. Stewart before her eyes drifted down to the picture once more. She stared at it, attempting to pull her gaze away…but was unable to. She looked at it with confusion…something was wrong…

That wasn't the Forum!

It couldn't be! Her eyes roamed the picture frantically. Where were the temples? The statues? The columns? The people? The shops? She couldn't believe that the crumbling stones were the grand Forum.

She leaned forward, hands placed on either side of the book as she breathed deeply trying to calm her fear. Something was happening…she stared more at the picture watching in awe as the picture changed. The stones reshaped themselves, arches grew, the streets flattened out, and buildings reformed. Her eyes widened as she saw people start to wander into the picture…

_A crowd had gathered, an angry mob entering the streets as the shopkeepers and merchants tried to sell their products to those who weren't as driven as the mob or men and women. They rushed angrily through the street, a set destination in mind. _

_A young woman in a dull white stola knelt by a small fountain, collecting water into a small clay vase. She looked up from her duty, hearing the crowd make its way behind her. She set the vase on the ledge of the fountain, turning to glance at the gathering, eyes widening in fear. She grabbed the vase and turned to face the crowd, walking towards them, head bowed, trying to make her way past them without them stopping her._

_But they did…_

_A strong hand grabbed her arm, forcing her to turn around as the water from the vase splashed on the ground. Her blonde hair sprayed around her as someone pulled the vase from her arms. Her eyes widened even more as she saw a soldier coming towards her with a sword. She backed up quickly, nearly tripping as she did so. She backed up as much as she could when she felt her back press against the wall of a shop._

_She glanced over, begging the shop keep with her eyes for help; he looked away, backing up from the crowd. She looked back at the man with the sword, he was getting closer._

"_Sericia!" a voice called._

_She turned her head to see Trenus trying to push his way to her, but being held back by the crowd._

_Her eyes closed in pain as the man with the sword reached her. She pressed her hands to her stomach when she felt the sword pull from her. The warm blood flowed in between her fingers as she fell to the ground, her vision fading as she saw Trenus rushing towards her…_

"Miss Evans!"

Sharpay's head snapped up as Mrs. Stewart glared at her. "I…I'm sorry," she mumbled, staring at her book once more. The forum was back to its natural state, as old and crumbling as ever. "What was the question?"

Mrs. Stewart rolled her eyes, "What was another thing that could have contributed to the downfall of Rome?"

"Uhh…" Sharpay glanced from the teacher back to the book and then back to Mrs. Stewart, "Riots?"

Mrs. Stewart's face bloomed into a smile, "Very good!" she said, "Now tomorrow we are going to go over…"

Just then the bell rang, signaling the end of the class. Sharpay quickly slammed shut her book, pushing it into her backpack and rushing out of the room. She practically ran to her locker, spinning the combination as fast as she could. She was shaking and over shot the second number, but eventually she managed to get the pink thing open.

She shut her locker a few minutes later, nearly jumping out of her skin when she saw someone standing on the other side of it. "Troy!" she exclaimed, putting her hand over her heart to steady it. "You scared me!"

He smiled sheepishly, "Sorry."

"What are you doing here?" she asked, completely forgetting that she was in school.

Troy laughed at her question, "Ms. Darbus wanted me to remind you that we have practice today…building the set…" he added seeing her confused look.

"Oh!" she said after a minute, "Right…"

She turned to look at her locker once more, not noticing Troy's face take on a confused expression. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"What?" she asked startled, "Yeah, I'm…I'm fine."

"You sure?" he asked once more, she nodded. "Ok…well, I also wanted to say congratulations…since I didn't get to say it before."

Sharpay smiled softly, "Thanks…" she looked down. That morning Ms. Darbus had posted the cast list for Aida! Sharpay had gotten the role of Aida, just like she'd hoped; Troy had gotten the general Radames. Gabriella had gotten Amneris, the princess of Egypt. That had been a surprise, everyone had expected Sharpay to be the princess, after all she was Ice royalty. Chad was Ramfis, the high priest while Taylor was one of the priestesses, and Ryan had gotten Amonasro Aida's father (he looked more like Sharpay than the others who auditioned).

Troy gave Sharpay a concerned look; he'd expected her to be more…well…excited. She'd told him just yesterday that she'd really wanted the role, so what could have changed?

"Congratulations too," she added, turning to face him, a large…forced…smile on her face.

"Thanks," he replied, knowing not to comment on Sharpay's forced smile.

He couldn't keep his eyes off of her all afternoon. They'd been piecing together some sets for the musical, painting some things as well…but his eyes never left her form for more than a few minutes at a time. He'd been staring at her, watching her paint part of a ship when Chad snapped his fingers in front of Troy's face.

Troy looked up to see Chad half glaring at him with anger and half watching him with worry. "What is up with you man?" he asked angrily. Troy glanced around to see some people look up at him, Chad had spoken quite loudly.

"What?" Troy asked, looking away from Sharpay to face his friend.

"All week you've been staring off into space and all distracted! Especially at practice!" he added.

Sharpay's ears perked up at Chad's words. She held her paintbrush lightly in her hand as she turned to face them. Everyone else had gone back to their previous tasks when Chad started to ramble off about basketball. She looked over at Troy, watching him, worry shining through her eyes. She was so focused on watching Troy, on trying to hear what Chad was saying to him, that she barely even noticed the splash of paint that fell onto her shoes.

Her eyebrows furrowed in concern as she gazed at Troy's face. He seemed to be listening to what Chad was saying half-heartedly, nodding when it appeared appropriate. He looked up slowly, eyes locking with Sharpay's. She looked away quickly, turning to face the ship. She glanced down at her brush before looking at the semi painted section. Her gaze drifted back to Troy, he was still looking at her.

Chad looked behind him, seeing Sharpay staring at them. He shook his head, grabbing Troy's arm lightly and dragging him behind the curtains.

Sharpay shook her head, going back to her work, but her thoughts drifted back to what she had heard Chad say. Troy was distracted? Daydreaming during basketball?

"Sharpay dear, please get back to work and stop daydreaming," Ms. Darbus said passing her, "We need to get that ship painted."

"Sorry Ms. Darbus," Sharpay said, going back to work, trying to keep her thoughts off Troy daydreaming…just like her…

A/N – So…the Rome memory will be explained in a later chapter. The next chapter should be a lot longer than this one was. It involves the group getting together to run lines…and a startling realization on someone's part…


	10. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

_Susan Elliot rushed about the small area of her Boston apartment, trying to get everything set up. She had just cooked dinner and was in the process of setting the silverware when her doorbell rang. She quickly put down her silverware and headed for the door. She smoothed out her navy blue cocktail dress, quickly removing the apron she was wearing before opening the door. _

"_You look radiant tonight," her guest said, handing her a small bouquet of pinkish white lilies._

"_Thank you Tom," she said blushing as she ushered him in. She went to the kitchen to put the flowers in water as Tom looked around her apartment. It was the first time he'd seen it…well, been in it. He'd seen it when he walked her up after a few of their dinners, but this was the first time he'd set foot in it. He wandered to the small dining room table, noticing that one of the silverware sets had not been placed. He set it up, thinking he was helping when Susan came back into the room and laughed._

"_What?" he asked, watching as she stepped up to the plate and took the silverware back up. _

_She placed the utensils on the other side of the plate, "You're doing it wrong," she said softly, fixing the setting. "It's not proper etiquette to have the knife on that side of the plate."_

_He laughed softly at that, "You went to Wellesley didn't you?"_

"_How can you tell?" she asked, laughing as well. She went back to the kitchen motioning for him to sit down as she returned a moment later with the food…_

It had been nearly a week since the first musical practice and Troy and Sharpay had kept their distance from each other as much as they could. It seemed to help them keep their minds on what they were supposed to do as well as keep them from having some 'jacked up' daydreams. But that didn't stop them from sneaking glances at the other when no one was looking.

Ryan and Sharpay were currently at their house that Wednesday night, preparing for the study party…well, it wasn't really a party, and they weren't really studying. They had invited all their friends to their house to go over the lines and music for the musical. They were going to meet up and have some dinner before heading into the music room to practice. Kelsi was sick, which almost put an end to their plans, but Ryan told everyone that Sharpay had been taking piano lessons for years now and that she could fill in.

Ryan was standing before the hall mirror that connected the dinning room to the main entrance. He was trying to decide whether to button the top button of his lime green shirt or not. He'd managed to convince Sharpay to do green, even though it was her least favorite color…but it was Gabriella's favorite…although that had absolutely no sway on his decision to wear green…no sway what-so-ever…

Sharpay had just walked into the dining room when the doorbell rang; she let Ryan go answer it since he'd practically jumped to get it. She glanced over at Mary, their housemaid/cook, who was setting the table and her eyebrow rose in confusion. She could hear Ryan greeting everyone and ushering them off to the dining room, but she didn't react to them. Instead she made her way over to the table, taking the napkins and silverware from Mary.

"I think you're doing it wrong," she said softly. Mary raised an eyebrow before stalking from the room as Sharpay set the silverware correctly, moving to each other plate and fixing the silverware. When she finished she mockingly brushed her hands together before turning to face her friends. "What?" she asked seeing them all staring at her with odd expressions. "It's not proper etiquette."

Everyone continued to stare. "What?" she asked again, this time getting angry.

"Nothing," Chad said nearly laughing. No one expected Queen Sharpay to know how to set a table 'properly'.

Sharpay rolled her eyes at them, "Well are you going to come in here and eat or stand there and gawk?" They shook their heads before taking their seats…

The practice had run late, too late for anyone to return to their houses, so they each called their families asking if they could stay the night, promising to make it to school the next day. Ryan and Sharpay had offered their guest rooms for their friends to use, but they all decided to just sleep in the entertainment room. It was the biggest room n the house, complete with a surround sound stereo system and big screen plasma TV. They had watched about three movies so far, just finishing watching their third when they realized that Troy had fallen asleep on the couch.

He was tossing and turning slightly as the dream felt more and more real…

_Quintus Julius Brunus paced back and forth before his son as they stood in their gardens. His son had just spoken something to him that could mean their downfall. Brunus was muttering incoherently to himself as his son stood there defiantly, fire burning in his eyes. Brunus recognized the look, it was the same look he had had when he and Trenus' mother had met, god rest her soul. _

"_She is a slave son!" he shouted, spinning to face his son. "She is below your status."_

"_I do not care about status." Trenus said to his father. _

"_But it is there nonetheless," Brunus added trying to get through to his son._

"_You do not understand!" Trenus replied evenly, staring his father down._

"_I do!" Brunus shouted, taking a breath to calm himself, "But you must think of how the people will react. If they were to find out that you…"_

"_I do not care about the people…" Trenus closed his eyes, taking a breath as he steeled himself for what he was about to say. "I care about her."_

"_I understand that son," Brunus said, grabbing Trenus' shoulders, "But wait four more years. She has been with us for two, in four years she will be free and you can do what you wish. I had to wait for your mother's family to accept me, I had to wait three year…"_

"_I am not you father!" Trenus shouted, anger filling his eyes. "I love her…"_

_With that Trenus departed from the gardens, leaving his father to stare at the spot where he had stood. Brunus sighed, bowing his head and shaking it. This union between his son and the slave Sericia would not end well…_

The group had started to whisper, laughing slightly as Troy rolled over, mumbling something in his sleep. Sharpay could hear the words, "Ego operor…non tutela super statua" leave his lips as a soft voice whispered in her head, '_I do not care about status!'_

Chad crept slowly towards where Troy lay, trying to hear what he was mumbling as Taylor hissed at him to stop. Chad waved her off, still creeping steadily closer. He had never known Troy to talk in his sleep so something must be going on in his head for him to be saying it out loud.

"Vos operor non agnosco," rang out in Sharpay's ears and again the voice whispered, _'You do not understand!'_

Taylor hissed at him again to stop, but he rolled his eyes, finally reaching Troy. Maybe whatever he was saying would help Chad understand what had been going on with Troy lately. He paused a moment, listening intently to what Troy was saying as the rest of the group quieted down unconsciously wanting to know what Troy was saying also.

Chad's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, he couldn't understand a word Troy was saying. "Well…" he heard Ryan hiss at him, "What's he saying?"

Chad listened to his friend speak, muttering "Ego operor non tutela super populus…"

Sharpay started to breath faster, '_I do not care about the people…'_

"I don't know," Chad whispered back glancing over at them, "I can't understand him."

The group looked at each other before crawling over to where Troy was laying…all except one. Sharpay sat in her spot by another couch, staring at the floor deep in thought. She didn't need to get closer to hear what Troy was mumbling, with everyone as quiet as they were, she could hear him plain a day.

"Ego tutela super suus." Troy whispered, an angry expression on his face.

"What's he saying?" Taylor asked, listening to Troy speaking in tongues.

Sharpay eyes scanned the floor as the voice continued to speak, _'I care about her.'_

"I've never heard anything like that before," Chad said.

"I didn't know Troy could speak another language…" Gabriella started.

"Ego sum non vos pater!" Troy continued as Sharpay winced from the anger in his voice, _'I am not you father!'_

"It sounds like…Italian?" Ryan asked, looking at the group.

"It's Latin." Sharpay whispered from her spot. No one looked at her as the realization dawned in their faces; they just stared at Troy more, wondering what he was saying.

Sharpay's eyes unconsciously started to fill with tears as she heard what Troy was saying.

"Ego amo eas…" Troy whispered rolling over, mumbling ceasing.

Sharpay felt a tear start to fall from her eye and hastily wiped it away before anyone could see it. Ego amo eas…I love her…the words felt familiar to her, but she couldn't place why…

"But Troy doesn't take Latin," Gabriella added utterly confused at Troy's words.

"Maybe its just cause we watched Gladiator before," Ryan added, shrugging. The group just went with that, unable to come up with any other excuse. He turned around to go put in another movie to see Sharpay staring off into space, barely moving. "Shar?" he asked, crawling over to her. She made no notion of having heard him, not even acknowledging his presence until he shook her out of her trance. "You ok?" he asked finally getting a response from her.

She shook her head out of her trance before looking at Ryan to see everyone staring at her. "Yeah, I'm fine…I was…just thinking about that last movie."

"Freddy vs. Jason?" Taylor asked, "What about it?"

Sharpay smiled softly proud that she had come up with such a quick lie, "I was just thinking how, if we were in a horror movie right now, we'd all survive because we're all virgins." She started to laugh along with some of the others…but her laughter didn't last long when Chad spoke next.

"So you _are_ still a virgin?" Chad asked.

…there was silence…

Sharpay looked over at Chad to see him giving her a serious look…he wasn't even joking about it! Sharpay glanced at the other people there only to see them each looking away in shame…they thought the same thing too! The only person who was even remotely on her side was Troy, who was asleep, and Ryan…he'd seen how upset she was when that rumor spread…he knew she'd remained pure despite what everyone said.

Sharpay shook her head staring at her so-called friends…how could they have even doubted her when she'd told them the rumor wasn't true? How could they have not believed her tears? Didn't they see how upset she had been? How could they think that about her?!

She looked away from her 'friends', getting to leave. That was when the apologies started. Gabriella and Taylor started to rise, trying to say how sorry they were and that; of course they didn't believe the rumors, when their faces just then told her that they had. But Sharpay was already headed for the door out of the room by the time they'd stood. She threw the door open and forced it shut as hard as she could behind her, not caring that it had slammed shut.

Troy jumped up on the couch at the noise, turning to face his shocked friends, "Wha's goin on?" he asked sleepily…

Sharpay stood outside her house, leaning against the railing of her front porch, still fuming at what her friends had done to her. Well…she wasn't really fuming now…she'd been standing out there for about a half hour now and had moved on from anger…to hurt.

Tears had collected in her eyes as she thought about her so-called friends. She cursed her brother silently, if it hadn't been for him, she wouldn't be as hurt as she was now. She had been the Ice Queen for a reason! If her heart was made of Ice, she couldn't be hurt, especially if she didn't care. She would have been fine, but noooo, Ryan had wanted to have friends and dragged Sharpay into it!

He'd made her melt her Ice Queen façade so that they could both have friends. It just so happened that he'd made friends with Troy, Gabriella, Chad, and Taylor. She should have expected to be hurt by her former enemies. But no! She gave them a chance, she let them in, she allowed herself to care about what they thought of her, and now…now she was standing out side her house, in the chill of the night, trying her best not to cry at their utter lack of faith in her principles!

She knew she should have never let them in…but she had…and they hurt her, just like she knew they would…It wasn't fair! She'd tried so hard to be there for them, to help them out, to be their friend, the person they could count on to understand them and support them…to believe them…and now…she wasn't even sure why se bothered.

"Hey…" she heard a voice say from behind her.

"What do you want Bolton?" she asked icily without turning to face him. Don't ask how she knew it was him, but she did…and she really didn't want to talk to anyone right now.

Troy winced at the tone of her voice; he could tell that she was starting to slip back into her Ice Queen persona. "They told me what happened…"

"Yeah, and?" she asked spinning to face him as she leaned back against the railing. "Let me guess, they sent you to come get black mail of the Ice Queen crying right?" She knew she was way off base with the accusation, not many people still considered her the Ice Queen.

"You were crying?" he asked softly staring into her eyes, seeing the tears there. Sharpay's eyes widened as she realized what she had said. She spun around again to stare at the sky, she just didn't want to face Troy right now…she didn't want him to see her cry…no one saw her cry!

Troy shook his head when Sharpay turned around. He felt like someone had punched him in his stomach when he saw the tears that had actually been in her eyes. He didn't want to make her cry again; he didn't want her to have been crying in the first place. He just plain didn't want to see her cry…to see her in that much pain.

"Are you alright?" he asked, taking a step and leaning against the railing next to her.

Sharpay turned her head to her left so that Troy wouldn't be able to see the tears still in her eyes. "Yeah…I'll be fine…"

There was a lag in the conversation as they both fell into an awkward silence, "Chad didn't mean what he said."

Sharpay nodded, "I know," she said sarcastically, "He just meant to say that he didn't believe me…that none of them did."

"Hey, hey!" Troy said quickly, "That's not true…"

"Oh yes it is Troy," she snapped turning to look at him, "You were sleeping, you didn't see their faces, the looks they gave me…"

"And you didn't stay to see the apologies they wanted to give you." He countered.

She rolled her eyes at him and looked back at the sky. She knew she'd probably overreacted, but she was really hurting just then. She shivered.

"You cold?" Troy asked concerned, they really didn't need the star of the musical to get sick a week into practice.

"No…" Sharpay drawled out, "What would give you that idea?"

"Sorry…" Troy said, getting slightly annoyed.

Sharpay sighed; she hadn't meant to get Troy mad. "Sorry," she said, "I'm just…really annoyed right now."

"Well, Chad can be an annoying person," Troy replied, getting a laugh out of Sharpay.

"You just figured that out now?"

"Nah," he said, "I've known it for a while, I just tend to ignore him."

She laughed more, actually smiling as she glanced at him. "It just…hurts…you know…"

"Sticks and stones," Troy added, "They're just words."

She shook her head, "It wasn't what he said that got to me." She took a breath, "It was their actions…or lack thereof…"

Troy nodded, "Actions speak louder than words."

Sharpay nodded as well, "And silence breaks the heart," she added recalling her own little rhyme. Sticks and stones may break my bones, aimed with angry art. Words can sting like anything, but silence breaks the heart.

He finally understood why she was so upset. Chad said something stupid, but no one made a move to tell him that or to reassure her that they thought what he'd said was stupid as well. Their lack of action spoke volumes to Sharpay.

"No one believes me," she muttered more to herself than to Troy.

He smiled softly, "I do."

She looked up at him, smiling softly when she saw his own smile. "Thanks…"

"You, Miss Evans, are very welcome." He nudged her on the arm, "Now…want to go back inside?"

Sharpay glanced back at the front door, she'd have to face everyone eventually…she might as well do it now rather than wait for things to be awkward in school. She nodded slightly, heading to the front door with Troy in tow…

Sharpay tossed and turned in her sleep, whimpering slightly as bits and pieces of dreams flashed across her mind. Scenes played out all chopped up and confusing. She could see herself…she could see Troy…but it wasn't them! She saw places she'd never been too…people she never knew…everything was spinning around her. Faces jumped out at her, emotions raged through her, she was lost! The dream was taking over…sucking her down…she needed to get out…NOW!

Sharpay sat bolt up right in her sleeping back, hair flying past her shoulder with the force of her movement. She was breathing heavily as she pressed the palms of her hands to her forehead, visions of her dream coming back to haunt her. She should have been used to it by now!

Ever since Sharpay had been a little girl, at least once a month she'd had horrible nightmares. Dreams where she'd been caught in the middle of a war, or a battle, or some other horrible thing. She'd seen people dieing and fighting just in front of her eyes. There had been many times where she'd woken up screaming from the horrible visions. In the last few years, she'd been able to stifle her screams so as not to wake up her brother…

But this last one was different…it wasn't really a nightmare…it was something else…

She glanced up, seeing everyone asleep on the floors and chairs, her gaze drifted to Troy sleeping on the couch. He was lying on his stomach with his left arm hanging off the couch grazing the floor.

'I wonder how his wound is healing…' she started to think when she stopped herself. A wound? 'Yes,' she continued, 'He'd been wounded in the crusades and…'

No! Her eyes widened in fear and confusion. The crusades were over! They had been for centuries…but his wound…

'He doesn't have one!' her mind screamed at her, telling her to get a grip.

She looked around at the room once again, it seemed so strange to her. Where were the stones? The sand? She looked over at the slightly open window, curtains rippling slightly with the wind. Where were the pyramids?

Pyramids?

Sharpay started to breath heavily, what was going on?! Where were these thoughts coming from? Crusades? Pyramids?

She looked back at Tom…no! His name was Treves…no…what was it? Sharpay looked around quickly, his name…what was it? Why couldn't she get her thoughts straight? Tehuti? No!

Troy!!!

That was it! And she was…Sarah? No…Subira? No! Sharpay! God, what was happening to her?

She shut her eyes, hands pressed more firmly to her head. Jumbled thoughts sifted through her head at break neck speed. So many different thoughts flowed past her, so many different memories…memories that weren't hers! Her eyes shot open, the memories weren't hers…but they were…

She could recall conversations with people…she'd never met them. Traveling to different places…she'd never left the country. She could remember how to speak at least three different languages…two which had been lost to the world…

Where had they come from? Why did she remember them? Which ones were hers?

What was going on?

A/N – Are you surprised? What's wrong with Sharpay? What is going on in her head? Anyone know? Next chapter has some bits of Troypay with as very confused Sharpay. It's the Talent Show! What songs will they each sing? Also, the Latin in the beginning, I know it's mostly wrong (I took Latin in HS), I used an online translator since I don't have any of my books or notes about how to write it perfectly.


	11. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

A/N – This chapter may be a little short, so might the next one, but the one after should be long enough :) I was sick yesterday, so I pretty much wrote all day...and slept, I'm finished the next chapter and will edit and post it tomorrow.

The next day, Thursday, was the most awkward, strange day any of the group had ever had…and it all revolved around Sharpay. She had been unnaturally quiet all day, and that wasn't even it. When they talked about something that they knew would interest her, she merely shrugged and went back to whatever it was that she was doing. She stared at almost everything, almost like she had never seen it before or was rediscovering it. The strangest thing of all was that she skipped musical practice that afternoon…just walked out of the school doors and went home.

She barely paid attention during class and hardly listened to anything that anyone said. When they tried to call her in the hallway, they'd had to call her like five times before she turned to face them, and when she had she looked kinda embarrassed and confused. But none of them knew why.

She was out of it the next day too, barely paying attention to anyone. It was a good thing that everyone was used to parting for her when she walked otherwise she would have crashed into people.

Troy was slightly worried about her, it was Friday night and he was sitting backstage watching Sharpay sit sullenly in her chair as they waited for their acts to be called. The Talent Show had started about an hour and a half ago and they weren't allowed in the audience until after they'd performed.

She looked so sad, lost, and confused that Troy had to get up from his chair and sit next to her. She barely acknowledged that he'd sat down next to her. "Hey…" he started.

She looked up, seeing him sitting there before looking away. "Hi."

He watched her carefully; he knew something was wrong, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…" she said, still not looking at him, "Why do you ask?"

"Maybe cause you won't look at me." Only after he'd said that did he realize what he had said. And after that, he realized the truth in his words. For nearly two days, she had looked at everyone…except him. She'd look them in the eye when they'd talk to her, but when he did…she looked away. He'd tried to talk to her that morning and had managed to catch her eye for only a moment before she looked away. But before she did, he could have sworn he'd seen pain in her eyes. Not physical pain…but she was in pain…and he didn't know why…and it annoyed him so much that he didn't know what was hurting her so badly.

Sharpay felt guilty, she knew that she should look at Troy; pretend, act, do something to make him think she was ok…but she couldn't. She had never been able to act around Troy…never. There had been so many thoughts flying through her head for days now, and she was still trying to sort them out and figure out what they mean. The most she had been about to figure so far was that the memories were real…but she didn't know how…and she knew that they were affecting her. She hadn't been able to look at Troy, every time she did she saw him with Gabriella and her heart would break.

She had always had a crush on Troy…for the last few years it had developed past the crush stage into something more serious. After that weird dream, she had no doubts that she loved him with everything she had…but he didn't love her. He was with Gabriella and it hurt her so badly. The memories, the feelings she got, told her that she was supposed to be with Troy…that they were supposed to be together…but they weren't…and she was having a hard time dealing with that fact.

She looked down when she felt a hand touch hers. She saw Troy resting his hand over hers, squeezing it in a comforting gesture. She glanced up to see him smiling softly at her, offering her the support that she so desperately needed. She looked him right in the eyes for the first time in days…and nearly gasped. An emotion that she never thought she'd see on Troy's face flashed across his eyes. Hope blossomed within her as she smiled softly.

She was about to say something to him to explain herself to him when one of the backstage crewmembers called that she was up after the next act. She gave Troy an apologetic smile before getting up to wait on deck.

Troy sat there for a while, thinking on Sharpay's strange behavior. The room they were waiting in connected to the back of the stage. The doors were left open so everyone was as quiet as they could be while the acts went on. He shut his eyes when he heard Sharpay called on stage. He smiled softly as he listened to her singing her song. It was one from Evanescence, but he wasn't sure which one, he couldn't really hear the words over the music, but he could hear her singing…she sounded just like Amy Lee.

He waited a few minutes after Sharpay had finished for her to come back into the room…but she didn't. He brushed it off that she must have just gone straight to sit in the audience. He frowned at that thought, he'd been hoping he could talk to her, it seemed like she had just been about to talk to him before.

Pretty soon it was his turn to go on. He looked out at the audience when the music started up, catching sight of his father but not Sharpay. He'd asked his parents to come to the talent show; his song was mostly for them. It was the only way he could think to get through to his father with out causing a scene since he didn't listen when they talked.

"I'm tired of being what you want me to be. Feeling so faith less, lost under the surface. Don't know what you're expecting of me, put under the pressure of walking in your shoes. Every step that I take is another mistake to you…" Troy sang, trying to keep his eyes off his father. It didn't work, he was singing to him after all. He was the one he needed to get through to.

"I've become so numb I can't feel you there. Become so tired, so much more aware. I'm becoming this, all I want to do is be more like me and be less like you." He took a quick breath before continuing, "Can't you see that you're smothering me? Holding too tightly, afraid to loose control? Cause everything that you thought I would be is falling apart, right in front of you. Every step that I take is another mistake to you…" Troy was getting angry. At first he'd just been singing, but now he was sure he'd end up screaming the words just to get his point across. "And every second I waste is more than I can take." Troy let go of the microphone, still in the stand before him, to grab at the hair on his head, screaming in frustration.

He let go of his hair quickly, grabbing the stand again; "I've become so numb I can't feel you there. Become so tired, so much more aware. I'm becoming this, all I want to do is be more like me and be less like you." He pulled the mic from the stand, holding close to his face with one hand, holding out the other one in a 'what do you want from me' gesture as he continued. "And I know I may end up failing too. But I know, you were just like me when someone disappointed you! I've become so numb I can't feel you there. Become so tired, so much more aware, I'm becoming this all I want to do is be more like me and be less like you. I've become so numb I can't feel you there. I'm tired of being what you want me to be. I've become so numb I can't feel you there. I'm tired of being what you want me to be."

Troy quickly handed the mic off to the MC before stalking off the stage. He walked through the side doors, nearly slamming them behind him. That song…whenever he listened to it, he felt he could relate to it…but when he sang it, it just got him so angry because it reminded him that he _was_ stuck behind just like his father. He was happy that he'd heard that song, Numb, by Linkin Park, without it…he didn't know how he'd deal with his father.

He punched one of the lockers before him, glad that the hallway was empty. He let out a deep breath, closing his eyes and resting his head on the cool metal when he heard something.

"And I know…" a soft voice sang behind him. He opened his eyes. "I may end up failing too, but I know you were just like me when someone disappointed you…"

Troy turned to see Sharpay standing meekly behind him, finally looking him in the eyes. "That was for your dad, wasn't it?"

Troy nodded, "Yeah it was…"

Sharpay nodded as well, "It seems like we were both singing songs meant for other people to hear." With that she gave him a meaningful look before turning and heading back to the stage area.

Troy looked curiously at the door she just walked through. Did she…had she sung to him? His eyes widened with the realization. He quickly jogged down the hall to where the programs were stacked. He managed to grab one just as the people started to come out of the auditorium. He had been the last one to go, so of course everyone was leaving now.

He rolled up the program, about to read it when he saw his parents standing by the pay phones near the main office. His gaze locked with his fathers…his dad appeared to be apologetic for something. He let out a sigh before heading over to them.

Sharpay stood near the edge of the crowd just watching as everyone walked by her, happy that she was fading into the background. Her gaze drifted over to where Troy was standing with his parents. She squinted slightly; he was nodding to what his father was saying a large grin on his face. His father smiled before holding out a hand, which Troy gladly shook.

"You ready?" a voice asked from behind her. Sharpay turned to see Ryan standing behind her. She glanced at Troy quickly before turning back to Ryan and nodding.

Troy was ecstatic! His idea worked! His father finally got the message that they were two different people. He promised to lay off with the acting comments and agreed to go easier on him with basketball. He'd said that the last thing he wanted to do was push his own son away.

He collapsed on his bed, rolling over slightly when he felt something sticking into his back. He pulled out the rolled up program and remembered Sharpay's words. He quickly tossed the small pamphlet open and found Sharpay's name. 'Taking Over Me' was listed by her name. He jumped off his bed, running to his CD case and grabbing his Evanescence CD. He popped it into his CD player and went straight to the song, listening intently to the words as they played.

You don't remember me, but I remember you  
I lie awake and try so hard not to think of you  
But who can decide what they dream, and dream I do

I believe in you  
I'll give up everything just to find you  
I have to be with you  
To live, to breathe  
You're taking over me

Have you forgotten all I know, and all we had  
You saw me mourning my love for you, and touched my hand  
I knew you loved me then

I believe in you  
I'll give up everything just to find you  
I have to be with you  
To live, to breathe  
You're taking over me

I look in the mirror and see your face  
If I look deep enough  
So many things inside that are  
Just like you are taking over

I believe in you  
I'll give up everything just to find you  
I have to be with you  
To live, to breathe  
You're taking over me

I believe in you  
(I believe in you)  
I'll give up everything just to find you  
I have to be with you  
To live, to breathe  
You're taking over me (taking over me)  
You're taking over me (taking over me)  
Taking over me

Troy sat back, shutting off the player in the process. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, if that song was meant for him to hear…then Sharpay was trying to tell him something…but he didn't know what…

A/N – Next chapter is a Saturday practice where tensions and jealousy run high among the gang…leading to an interesting, though hard to follow, argument…


	12. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Troy yawned once again as he helped paint the tops of the ships. He had been up nearly all night replaying the song that Sharpay had sung, trying to figure out what she was trying to tell him. His song had been so straight forward, he was tired of living up to his dad's expectations, but hers…he still didn't know what she was saying. It made no sense and was getting on his nerves.

He'd tried talking to Sharpay earlier that morning…but she avoided him…which just made him all the more annoyed. He was reaching his breaking point and Chad wasn't helping in the slightest. All morning, Chad had been bugging him about the sleepover; what he'd dreamed about, what he had said, what was going on. It was really starting to rub him the wrong way!

Sharpay glanced over at Troy as she painted the burial tomb; she'd been avoiding him. She knew that he'd listened to the song she'd sung; she also knew that he didn't understand it. She frowned; she'd been hoping that he would understand what she'd been trying to get across. It just proved her fears…he didn't remember…

She wasn't sure what he was supposed to remember…hell! She wasn't even sure what she remembered! She had absolutely no idea what was going on in her head or why. She felt so helpless, she couldn't talk to anyone about it either…they'd think that she was crazy. Who the hell would believe someone who had five different sets of memories and fricken voices whispering in her head?!

She'd managed to set the different 'memories' straight…or at least as much as she could. She had them in five different categories, one was Egypt because of the pyramids, one was Rome because she was pretty sure that the Romans wore togas, then there was Medieval Times since she was often dressed as a princess, also what she called prim and proper because she often saw herself dressed impeccably, and finally there was Mona Lisa Smile just because the clothes she could recall reminded her of the movie Mona Lisa Smile. She didn't know why she remembered all this stuff…but she was pretty sure that Troy was supposed to remember it too. The man that was in most of the bits she could envision reminded her of Troy

The more she thought about this, the more pissed off she got. Why the hell was she the only one to remember anything? Why her? Why just her? What the hell was she supposed to do now? She didn't even fully understand half the things she remembered, it was still just a jumble of things. How was she supposed to deal with that…alone?

She felt an arm wrap around her shoulder and looked up to see Zeke there. Despite their break up, they had managed to remain good friends. Sometimes she'd talk to Zeke about things…mostly about Troy…he knew she really did like him more than she let on, it was one of the reasons why they'd broken up. Zeke had no hard feelings about it; he'd actually told Sharpay that he'd hoped that dating her would help him catch the eye of Stacey Cumberman, one of the cheerleaders.

It had worked and, needless to say, they had broken up so Zeke could go after Stacey. Sharpay had no problem with the break up, as long as she was the one to break up with him. They school wasn't completely 'breaking free' yet, they still expected Sharpay to break it off…so she did.

She smiled softly up at him, thanking him with her eyes as he walked off to get more supplies. She looked down at the tarp-covered area she was standing on before glancing up at where Troy was. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion when she saw him look away quickly as if he hadn't wanted to get caught staring at her. She smiled softly to herself as she went back to painting.

Troy's grip on his paintbrush tightened immensely. He had glanced up from his painting to see Zeke with his arms all over Sharpay! What was that about? Wasn't he going out with Stacey from the cheer squad? He wasn't allowed to touch Sharpay! No one was! No one but him…

He shook himself out of his thoughts. Who was he to say who was and wasn't allowed to touch Sharpay? She wasn't his girlfriend, she was her own person and perfectly capable of deciding who was allowed to touch her or not.

"Dude," he heard Chad say, coming up next to him. "What'd that brush ever do to you?"

He started to laugh as Troy looked down. He was holding the brush so tightly in his hand that his knuckles were turning white. Troy forced a laugh out, waving Chad away as he turned back to look at Sharpay. She was waving Zeke away and turning to face him…turning to face him?! Troy looked away quickly, flushing slightly as he thought that he might have been caught staring at her. He waited a few moments before looking up once again, a soft smile forming on his face when he saw Sharpay smiling as well…

All morning, and most of the afternoon, the cast and crew worked at getting the set completely finished. And all day Troy and Sharpay had been sneaking looks at each other. Troy was getting angrier and angrier each and every time he looked over at Sharpay, she was always sitting with Zeke, or laughing with Zeke, or talking with Zeke, or…well…she was always with him! And it was pissing him off! God! Zeke had a girlfriend; he shouldn't be that comfy cozy with Sharpay!

A small voice echoed in the back of his head that he had a girlfriend as well…but he ignored it, choosing rather to watch Zeke and Sharpay…and glare at Zeke…something that didn't go unnoticed by Sharpay.

Sharpay was getting really annoyed. For the past few hours, every time she looked up she saw Troy glaring at her. What was up with him? What did she do now?

She got up to go wash off her paintbrush, finally finished with her section. She had only walked a few feet down the hall when she heard the door shut behind her. She turned to see Troy stalking after her.

"Sharpay!" he shouted, rushing to catch up to her.

She shook her head, spinning to face him, "What do you want Troy?" she snapped.

"What is wrong with you?!" he snapped as well, reeling from he attitude.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips. She glanced past him to see Taylor, Chad, and Ryan laughing as they stepped out of the auditorium and made their way toward the pair.

"It's supposed to mean, what the hell are you doing with Zeke?" he asked glaring at her.

"Why do you care?" she asked, glaring right back at him. Since when did he care whom she hung out with?

"Cause you're my friend and I don't want you to get hurt," he shouted at her, attracting the confused stares of their friends.

"Right…" she said sarcastically, "If I'm your friend you wouldn't have been glaring at me all day!"

"I wasn't glaring at you!" he shouted.

"So I was just imagining it?" she asked. She rolled her eyes and continued down the hall with Troy and their friends following.

"No!" Troy shouted, trying to get her attention, "I was glaring at Zeke!"

"Why the hell would you glare at him?" she asked, spinning to face him so quickly that he walked into her. "Just cause he was talking to me?"

"He was hanging all over you!" Troy countered.

"It's called being friends Troy!" she retaliated, "I do that with all my friends. You would know if you actually took the time of day to hang out with me instead of wasting all your time with Gabriella!"

"Don't bring her into this!" Troy ordered.

"Why?" Sharpay asked, glaring at him more, "You brought Zeke into this!"

"He was already there to begin with!" Troy shouted, "He's the reason we're arguing!"

"Oh so we'll just blame this whole thing on Zeke then," Sharpay interrupted sarcastically.

"God Sharpay will you just listen to me a minute?"

"No, you're just going to go on trashing Zeke and…"

"Well then he probably deserves it!"

"Don't you dare…"

"I'll do whatever the hel…"

"Guys!" Chad shouted as the two turned to face him.

"What?!" They shouted at them.

"Speak English!" he replied.

"What?" they asked more confused and less angry.

There was silence for a moment before Taylor stepped up, "What the hell was that?"

"What?" Sharpay asked, putting her hands on her hips, "It's not the first time we've argued."

"Yeah…" Ryan started staring in shock at his sister, "But it's the first time we couldn't understand you…"

"What are you talking about?" Troy asked this time. He glanced at Sharpay still red faced from their yelling spat. Had they been yelling so much that no one could figure out what they'd been saying? Maybe they had just been yelling too fast?

"First you were all 'Quel est mauv something…' and Sharpay was like 'Pourquoi soignezelle vouy thing…' and you were all like…"

"I think they get it Chad," Taylor said cutting him off, shaking her head at her boyfriend's horrible reiterations of what their friends had said.

Troy and Sharpay's eyes widened in shock as they looked at each other. Their eyes locked and Troy could have sworn he saw a look of familiarity flash through Sharpay's eyes before she looked away. Troy looked back at his friends as Sharpay looked down at the floor beside her.

She shook her head as one of her many new memories resurfaced…

_Soleil strode angrily through the house trying to ignore Treves as he stalked behind her. "What is wrong with you?!" he shouted as he stomped after her down the hallway._

"_Why do you care?" she asked, not even glancing back at him._

_Treves paused, trying to come up with a reason why he did care so much that she was upset. "Genevieve would be upset as well."_

"_Oh of course," Soleil shouted spinning about to face him as he nearly crashed into her when she stopped, "We mustn't make Genevieve upset!"_

_Treves sighed as Soleil spun and rushed down the stairs before following after her. "Will you just stop and speak what is on your mind?" he asked, this rushing after her was getting him angry as well._

"_Not right now!" she shouted over her shoulder. Treves was the last person she wanted to talk to. He was the husband of the source of her unrest._

_Treves grabbed her arm as she reached the bottom of the steps, "Then when?" He asked, for some reason he just didn't want Soleil to be angry…especially not with him, which he thought she was._

"_When I am out of this house and Genevieve is out of my life!" she shouted, glaring at Treves before she pulled her arm from his grip and headed for the door._

"_What did Genevieve do this time!?" He shouted, following her, he felt a need to defend his wife…even if he was sure that she didn't deserve it…Genevieve had a nasty habit for speaking before she thought._

"_You want to know?!" Soleil shouted, spinning to face him once again, this time he did crash into her. Soleil took a step back, straightening out her clothing before glaring at Treves. _

"_Yes," he said, "I want to know what has gotten you so upset."_

_Soleil let out a sigh, up till then her anger had been all that kept her from crying, and she did not want Treves to see her crying. "Genevieve…she passed the music room while I was practicing…" she paused, taking a deep breath as Treves waited for her to continue, "She said that I should stop with the infernal racket…that I would not make a career out of it."_

_Treves' eyes widened with shock at what Soleil had said. Genevieve…how could she say such a thing? Just a few days ago she had been spouting praises to Soleil for her talents on the piano, telling Treves all about how she would get far with her nimble hands on the black and white keys. What had changed? Soleil had been with them for nearly two months now and he hardly believed that Genevieve had been annoyed with her…what could have changed so drastically?_

_Treves reached out, pulling Soleil into a hug when he realized she was sobbing. Soleil wrapped her arms around Treves' waist; only he could make her feel better, make her feel like everything would be fine. She smiled softly when Treves tightened his grip on her waist…_

"Sharpay?" someone nudged her out of her thoughts. She looked up to see Ryan standing next to her, with everyone else staring at her. "You ok?" he asked concerned.

Sharpay was about to say that she was fine…but she'd be lying. She glanced at Troy, seeing him eyeing her oddly…before sighing. She shook her head, "I'm not feeling that well…can we go home?"

Ryan nodded, practice was almost over anyway. He said goodbye to the gang, asking them to tell Ms. Darbus for them, before walking out the door. The group started to head back into the auditorium while Troy lingered a moment longer watching as Sharpay disappeared out the door…

A/N – Next chapter…the art museum where something happens that gives Sharpay hope for Troy's memories…and the chapter after that…official Troypay! I'm not sure if I'm going to post tomorrow (X-Mas Eve! Yay!) but I'll definitely be writing.


	13. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

A/N – Here's a Christmas (holiday) gift from me to you! An update :)

Ryan kept sending concerned glances over to Sharpay…and it was starting to get on her nerves. Ryan had followed her all throughout their house on Saturday after practice, practically forcing her into her room to rest. His mind connected not feeling that well to being an inch from death. She did as she was told, curling up in bed with Ryan bring her some soup, just to appease him.

Now they were seated next to each other on the cramped yellow bus as it headed for the Art Museum. Sharpay tried her best to ignore Ryan's glances by staring out the window at the passing scenery. They would be there a lot sooner than they thought they'd be, it was Monday morning so not many people were out on the road since many were either in school or at work. She knew why Ryan was worried about her today…it had nothing to do with 'not feeling well' before…it had to do with the fact that she wasn't nearly as excited at visiting the museum now as she had been before. For Sharpay Ice Queen Evans to not be excited about anything creative was a sure sign of the apocalypse.

She had never been happier than when the bus pulled right up to the main steps of the museum, it meant a distraction for Ryan…though she doubted he'd be very distracted with his 'little' sister acting so oddly. She rolled her eyes at that. He was only two minutes older than her and he made sure that she was reminded of that at least once a week.

Ms. Darbus ushered them all inside telling them that they were free to do what they wanted as long as they stayed in the museum and met back there at 5. Then she was gone, somewhere to get her creativity going, before anyone could even say Musical…

Sharpay and Ryan wandered over to Kelsi, Chad, Gabriella, Taylor, and Troy, before all walking off around the museum. It was a really good day, they had gotten to see Roman artifacts and the Medieval suits of armor in only the first few hours before heading over to the Egyptian section.

Sharpay kept her finger's crossed as they stepped into the Egyptian section. She had done some research on the museum and found that they had had an Egyptian section. Sharpay had been so excited to go to that section. Some of the memories were becoming clearer to her, she could now recall most of the ones from Egypt and was hoping that visiting that section, seeing some of the artifacts, might help her to clear up the rest of them…and maybe even spark something in Troy…

They spent nearly 45 minutes just looking at all the artifacts that the museum was able to accumulate…but nothing. No memories became clearer and no hint of recollection in Troy. She had nearly given up hope of clearing up anything when they arrived in the hall of music, a magnificent hall filled with instruments from all different time periods. They had some ancient forms of instruments and even some classical instruments from only a few centuries ago.

Sharpay couldn't suppress a small smile, as she looked at all the different instruments. There were some that she had never even heard about, and some that she couldn't even fathom how to play, but then…they passed the violins and pianos.

Sharpay's smile fell, as she was barely able to stifle a gasp when she saw it. Her piano!

Well…not hers…but it was…Soleil's? Yes, it had been Soleil's.

She walked slowly over to it, staring at it intently. She reached out, just wanting to brush her fingers over the keys one more time when someone grabbed her hand, stopping her.

She looked up to see Ryan staring at her, laughter in his eyes, "What are you doing Shar?" he asked trying to hide his laugh, "You know we're not supposed to touch anything."

She let out a forced laugh, "Right…" she shook her head, pulling her hand back as she stared at the piano once again. "It looks just like it did…" she whispered to herself. She glanced up to see everyone staring at her with odd expressions; she hadn't realized she'd said that loud enough for them to hear. "I…I mean…I'm just amazed that it's in such good condition…you know, being a little more than 150 years old…"

"Yeah…" Chad said, laughing semi forced as well, "Really impressive…"

Sharpay rolled her eyes at him, the most excited he'd gotten so far had been when they passed a Roman plate with two women playing some sort of ball game.

They headed out f the section, making their way to the food court. Surprisingly the food in the museum's cafeteria wasn't that bad…at least, it was much better than the school's cafeteria food. They still wanted to check out the Japanese Zen garden and the paintings before they left.

They had just left the Zen garden, the guys practically pulling the girls away from oohing and ahhing at the koi fish. Now they were just wandering around the art section, looking at the paintings lining the walls.

Sharpay stopped for a moment, digging through her purse to try to find her lip-gloss. She managed to find it, applying it while keeping an eye on her friends as they continued along the walls, Gabriella and Taylor occasionally looking through the booklets they had picked up at the entrance. She went to place her lip-gloss back in her purse when her gaze drifted away from the gang and along the other paintings on the walls. Her eyes landed on a hallway just next to her, more paintings lining it, but the one that caught her attention was the one at the very end. She glanced back at the group before turning and walking straight down the hall, eyes firmly planted on the one painting.

Ryan turned to ask Sharpay her opinion on one of the paintings they were looking at entitled 'Tickle Me Pink'. If anyone could tell you what was what with anything involving the color pink it was Sharpay. His eyes widened slightly when he realized that she wasn't there. "Hey," he started, getting the attention of the group as they walked a little ways away, "Have any of you seen Sharpay?"

"Yeah," Gabriella said, "She was just behind…" she looked around them as well, "I…guess not…"

Troy looked around, squinting when he saw something lying on the floor. "I think I saw her back there," he said nodding in that direction, "I'll go get her…you guys go on, we'll catch up."

The group nodded, waving slightly as they continued walking, Ryan shot him an appreciative look. Troy nodded before walking off to the small object on the ground. He picked it up, it was lip gloss…probably Sharpay's. He looked around wondering where she had gone…then he saw her…at the end of a hall of paintings, standing before one at the end.

He shook his head before half walking, half jogging down the hall to get her. "Hey, Sharpay!" he said stopping just beside her, "What are you looking…" He trailed off when he finally looked at the painting she was staring at. A look of confusion marred his face as he too stared at the painting, something stirring within him. The painting consisted of a blonde woman sitting before a piano, facing it so her face could not be seen. She was playing it, her body language indicating that she was enjoying it.

He stared to raise his arm, reaching up as if to touch it when Sharpay suddenly grabbed his hand and brought it back down, "Troy!" she exclaimed turning to face him, as if just noticing he was there. "You're not allowed to touch the paintings."

He turned to face her, confusion evident in his eyes as if he didn't understand why he shouldn't touch the painting. "But…it's mine…I …I mean…it seems…familiar…" he elaborated, turning back to stare at the painting.

Sharpay nodded, "I know…" She stared at the painting a moment longer before turning to face Troy. She looked closely at him seeing something akin to familiarity flashing through his eyes. Was he remembering? She didn't know. She looked back at the end of the hall before looking back at Troy. She was almost positive that Ryan or someone had sent him to find her. It would only be a few moments before Ryan's paranoia would send someone else to find them both. She sighed, she couldn't wait to see if Treves' painting would spark something in Troy…she didn't have time…they were supposed to leave soon…

She slowly backed away, pulling Troy with her since she had yet to let go of his hand. The small tug seemed to be enough to snap him out of his thoughts because he turned as well and led her down the hall and back to the group.

A/N – I fully anticipated for this chapter to be longer than it was…but it just turned out to be short. But I can make up for the shortness with the next chapter…official Troypay!


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

A/N – My gift to you! The start of official Troypay! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Sharpay wandered around school the next day, head full of music. Ever since she had seen her piano the day before on Monday, she had had a song playing nonstop inside her head. She had had to stop herself from humming the damned song whenever her thoughts strayed. It had been even worse since she couldn't concentrate all day on anything with the tune playing louder than the teacher's talking.

She thanked her lucky stars that Ms. Darbus had been absent that day meaning no play…meaning that she wouldn't get yelled at for her lack of attention. She rested her head against her locker as Ryan finished getting his books out of his.

"You ready to go?" he asked.

Sharpay bit her bottom lip for a moment before replying, "You go on ahead, I…want to work on something for the musical."

Ryan looked up at his sister and smiled broadly, "Now there's the Sharpay I know and love. Always practicing for the musical." He gave her a quick hug, "Give me a call when you need a ride home ok?"

She nodded, waving to him as he walked down the hall. She looked down at the notebook in her hands. It was one of those sheet music notebooks, just page after page of those five lines. She never really told anyone, but she was quite the composer herself. Ever since her parents had gotten her piano lessons she had started to write little ditties and songs, just nonsense stuff to relieve her stress…but now, she figured her notebook would come in handy…if she didn't get that song out of her head she thought she'd scream.

She took a deep breath before heading towards the auditorium, she knew that no one would be there…no one loved the musicals that much to practice when not even Kelsi was around to play…but Sharpay didn't need to practice…she needed to write…

She let out a relieved sigh as she stepped into the empty auditorium; you could never be too certain that no one would be there. But no one was…she was confused slightly at the lack of people, she had at least expected Gabriella to be there practicing for her songs with a CD.

She mentally smacked herself when she remembered that the Scholastic Decathlon members were meeting after school for a practice session since Darbus was absent. Not to mention, there was basketball practice as well so Chad and Troy were finally able to go to one without having to leave early or late because of the musical. She smiled softly; finally it was just her, the piano, and the song in her head.

She sat at the bench, running her hands gently over the keys before setting her notebook on the top of the piano. She closed her eyes the song starting over in her head, she placed her hands on the keys and started to play the first few notes…

Troy blocked Zeke preventing Jason from passing him the ball. Zeke broke out of the block and signaled for Jason to pass him the ball, he did but Troy managed to steal it and head for the basket. He took the shot…SWISH! He made it!

He turned to give Zeke a 'you'll do better next time' look before getting a high five from Chad as the other team took the ball and the scrimmage continued. Coach Bolton was watching the game with a startling intensity, eyes firmly planted on Troy. After all, this was his last chance to make something of himself with Basketball. Scouts would be coming to the championship games and Jack Bolton would be damned if he let his son screw up his chances to get a scholarship. If Troy wasn't at the top of his game…then Jack would have to make him practice double time till he was.

"Troy!" he shouted, "Pass the ball more! You're a team player not a ball hog!"

Troy glanced over at his father, rolling his eyes before passing the ball back to Chad. He'd been passing the ball all practice; he'd only taken about two shots at the basket in the nearly two hours they had been playing.

Every time he made a basket, his dad would yell for him to pass the ball more…if he passed the ball when he had a chance for a basket, his dad would yell at him to take more shots! It was infuriating! Troy was nearing the point where if his dad made on more comment on how he should play the game, he was going to take the ball and wail it at him! Troy smirked a little, or better yet, shove it up his as…

The sound of a shrill whistle stopped Troy from finishing his thoughts. He turned to see his father glance at his watch. "Bring it in!" he shouted.

Troy rolled his eyes, the scrimmage was over, his team had won so there really wasn't anything for his dad to ride him about…or so he thought…

He sat there as his dad spouted off praises to nearly every member of the Varsity team, letting them head off to the locker room to change as soon as he finished his 'critiquing'. Troy was the last one, which he fully expected and was grateful for. He really hated it when his dad got on his case in front of the guys.

"Troy what was that just now?" he asked, appearing angry while trying to stay calm.

"I was doing what you told me to dad," Troy started. "Coach." He corrected when he saw the look his father gave him.

"And what was that?"

"To give it my all and get my head in the game."

Coach Bolton rolled up the papers with the team's stats that he'd been going over and smacked Troy on the head with it. "And was that your all? Huh? Was your head in the game?"

Troy winced rubbing his head slightly, "No, sir."

Coach Bolton's features softened when he saw his son wince. He sighed, rubbing his forehead. He was disappointed in himself. He had promised Troy that he would let him make his own decisions about what he wanted to do with his life. The song Troy sang at the Talent show had convinced him that he was becoming the thing he swore he wouldn't be…his own father. His dad had pushed him and pushed him in basketball, making it possible for him to get into a great college…while pushing him away and filling him with resentment. He didn't want that relationship with his own son.

"I'm sorry son," Coach said, hanging his head, "I just…I'm worried about the championships…the scouts…"

"I know," Troy said, nodding his head. He understood as well, that the basketball scholarship would really help his family pay for college. "I'll do better."

"Thank you." Coach Bolton said. Troy started to head for the locker room when his dad gently grabbed his elbow, "100 baskets." He said, grinning slyly at Troy. It had been an ongoing joke between them. At the end of every practice Troy was supposed to shoot 100 baskets, his dad would head home and wait till Troy jogged back. They would time it to see Troy's improvement.

Troy rolled his eyes, laughing slightly as he grabbed the ball that his father tossed to him. He waited till his father entered his office to get his keys, signaling the beginning of the timing. He turned back to the basket, barely having to look as he took a shot…SWISH…

Nearly 20 minutes later he had completed his baskets, positive that it was a new record. He jogged over to the locker rooms, taking a quick shower before changing and heading out. He jogged down the hall, ready to run out of the main doors and head home when he heard something. He stopped in his tracks not even ten feet away from the main doors, listening, trying to figure out what the sound was. It sounded like someone was playing the piano…beautifully, he might add. His curiosity got the better of him and he found himself walking down the hall along side the auditorium before he even realized what he was doing.

Troy walked closer and closer to the stage door, where the music was getting louder. He could hear someone singing now. He leaned his head against the door, listening to the words…they were in another language…something like French…but it sounded so familiar. Troy's eyes widened, glazing over as the words struck something deep within him. As if in a trance he opened the stage door and walked in, an unknown force pulling him closer and closer to the blonde seated at the piano bench…

Sharpay had been so relieved as she continued playing her song, eyes closed in delight. It had taken her nearly two hours to get the notes on the page. It seemed like every time she started to write the notes, another memory would bubble to the surface, pushing her song away. She would have been happy to let the song fade away but now she was determined to get it down on paper.

She had managed to do it…finally…and had taken only about fifteen minutes to fully be able to play the song like she had done so often in France. A soft smile crept onto her face as she played, she remembered when she had written the song, Soleil had just moved in with Genevieve and Treves…that man…he was infuriating! All they had done was argue constantly about one thing or another. He seemed to get off by teasing and tormenting her. Somehow though, they had managed to fall in love with one another. Her song was all about how love comes up in the most unexpected places, from the most unexpected people.

She hummed along with it, starting to sing where she had made notes that lyrics were supposed to be. She could recall the words almost as if she had just sung them yesterday. She put her heart into the words, not bothering to put force into them. This wasn't a song to belt out; it was a song to be felt.

Vaguely she could hear the stage door open behind her, but she paid no mind to it, too into her playing. It wasn't even until the song died down to its last few notes that she even heard the person walking towards her…

"Soleil…" Troy whispered in a daze as he walked closer to Sharpay.

Sharpay gasped, getting up from the piano to face Troy. Her eyes widened in shock as he raised a hand to stroke her cheek.

"Troy…" she said, swallowing hard, "What are you…"

He smiled softly, "Mon Amour…" he whispered before leaning down and capturing her lips in a feather light kiss. But it didn't stay that way for long, the sugary sweet kiss soon grew, like a piece of wood catching the spark of a flame, into an uncontainable fire of passion. Their tongues dueled for dominance as their arms wound their way around the other. Troy's hand rested on the back of Sharpay's neck, angling her head to deepen the kiss…

_Soleil had finally finished her composition. She was so excited; she was going to submit it hoping that it might be good enough to be put into the concert that the pianists of France were putting on in a few weeks. She had worked nonstop since she had arrived in Genevieve's house to finish and perfect it. No small feat when one took into account Treves' nonstop annoyance._

_That man…he was so infuriating! The highlight of his day seemed to be getting a rise out of her. Of course, Soleil went right back at him, she was not one to back down to a challenge. _

_She let the notes linger a moment longer before she released the keys, finally finished perfecting her song. She let out a soft breath; smiling softly as she stared at the keys…just then a clapping noise arose behind her._

_She turned quickly, standing to face none other than Treves as he made his way across the room towards her. "Treves!" she shouted startled, what was he doing here? He was supposed to be at the office today. "What are you…"_

_She couldn't finish her sentence for Treves placed a finger over her lips, she looked up into his eyes, seeing an emotion she thought she'd never see there…love… "That was beautiful…" he started, smiling softly, all the while staring into her sky blue eyes, "My love…" he whispered, closing the gap between them to capture her lips. _

_Their tender, chaste kiss quickly transformed to a burning, passionate one. Both were so engrossed in their kiss that neither saw the lone figure standing outside the partially open door. Genevieve barely stifled a gasp when she saw her husband and her so-called best friend. Tears of hurt and anger filled her eyes as she glared at Soleil. She took an angry breath before spinning on her heel and storming down the hall…_

Only lack of oxygen was able to separate them as they parted gasping for the much needed air. They rested their foreheads against the others, eyes closed, still savoring the kiss.

Sharpay shook her head slightly, pulling back, "Troy…" she whispered hoarsely.

Troy opened his eyes, crystal clear, staring straight into her sky blue eyes seeing her fully for the first time, "Beautiful…" he whispered. He leaned in to kiss her again, but she stepped back out of his arms.

She shook her head, forcing herself not to look at him…if she did, she knew she'd give in to him and she couldn't…He was still with Gabriella, and Sharpay would be damned is she hurt her best friend like that...she had learned from her mistake with Genevieve. She felt tears fill her eyes…it wasn't fair…Troy finally felt the same about her and she couldn't even have him…

"I can't…" she whispered taking a few more steps back.

"Shar…" Troy started, but his words were lost as Sharpay ran out of the auditorium.

Troy stood there a moment longer, wondering just what had happened. He had heard her singing and gone to listen…then the next thing he knew, he had an undeniable urge to kiss her…and so he did…and it felt great! He had had feelings for Sharpay for quite some time, but he had never thought in the slightest that she liked him as well. That was why he had agreed to go out with Gabriella in the first place…he thought that Sharpay would never want him…boy was he ever wrong…

He let out a defeated sigh before walking out of the auditorium as well. He had to talk to Sharpay as soon as possible…tomorrow…he could only hope that she would listen…

As soon as Troy was out of the room two figures emerged from behind the curtains of the stage. They looked at each other, confusion and worry in their eyes.

"What should we do?" Taylor asked, glancing at Chad.

Chad shook his head, his afro shaking slightly after he'd finished, "I…don't know…"

A/N – Ohhhh…what are Chad and Taylor going to do now? Troy and Sharpay have been caught…what is Troy going to say? Will Sharpay listen?


	15. Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Ryan and Sharpay walked into East High the next day, Sharpay oddly quiet. Ryan had been worried about her yesterday, she had walked home and hadn't bothered to call him. He had never known a time where Sharpay would rather walk home and destroy her shoes than take a ride in a car. Something must have been wrong; she wouldn't even talk to him about it. Wouldn't even play the song she had been working on. He placed his arm around her shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze as they walked down the hall.

Sharpay heard Troy and his friends before she even looked but, but when she did it was not what she expected. She lifted her head slowly, eyes locking with Troy's as she saw him walking down the hall in her direction.

Suddenly she was in a different place…Ryan was gone...

_She was dressed in a long white, plain stola, carrying a large clay vase full of water. Her eyes were locked with those of Quintus Julius Trenus as he walked opposite her with his father. Time seemed to slow as they passed each other, eyes still locked, craning their necks over their shoulders to keep the other's gaze as long as possible._

_Trenus was forced to look back ahead of him as his father continued to talk politics. Sericia looked down at the ground, she shouldn't have even been looking Trenus in the eyes, he was above her station and it was not proper protocol for a slave to look her master directly in the eye. But she couldn't help it, in that one moment she had felt such a connection with him…it was almost as if he had seen into her soul. She shook her head free of such silly fantasies, keeping her eyes firmly planted on the ground, gaze following the cracks in the floor till she was finally looking before her once again…_

Sharpay was now looking straight ahead of her, trying her best to ignore Troy who was still looking back at her despite having walked past her in the hall. Her gaze had startled him, it was as if she had looked at him, but not seen him and it scared him.

He couldn't get her look out of his head all day. All he could do was think of her…it seemed like that was all he had been doing for a while. He tried to think back to when she had first taken Gabriella's place in his mind…knowing full well that she had been in his heart long before he'd met Gabriella. It seemed to him, the best he could figure, that he had started to think more and more on Sharpay since she broke up with Zeke.

His thoughts on her had gotten worse…she was invading his dreams as well. Almost every night for the last two weeks he had been dreaming of her…well, not her exactly…He'd been dreaming strange dreams of him and Sharpay…at least, he thought it was them. He could recognize himself well enough, and there always seemed to be a blonde woman with him…and a brunette occasionally…but more often then not it was a blonde…the only blonde Troy knew was Sharpay…

He shook his head clear of thoughts like that; Sharpay would think he was crazy if he mentioned that he'd been dreaming about them together near pyramids and in togas. She'd probably think he'd eaten something odd or watched Animal House too many times. His mouth started to water when he thought about Sharpay in a toga…even more when he imagined her in the Egyptian style clothing…more than once he'd woken up and had to change his sheets…

He shook his head once again, he really shouldn't be thinking like that…especially not in school where it was possible for a very, _very_ embarrassing reaction to occur with the thought. The last thing he needed was for Chad or one of the guys from the team to ride him about thoughts of Gabriella…

He shuddered unconsciously at the thought. It wasn't that Gabriella wasn't a great girl, even a great girl friend…it was just…she was so nice…She never challenged him about anything, she always backed down when people raised their voices or stood up to her. She was always cheerful and never spoke her mind about anything that people might get offended by. She was all about honesty, but never really told anyone about what she thought…not like Sharpay.

Sharpay might come across as being really harsh…but she was just bluntly honest about every thing. If she didn't like something, she said it. If she thought something was stupid, she said it. She was a lot more considerate of other people's feelings now, making sure to gently tell the person what she thought, but she was still honest. She spoke her mind about everything, unafraid of what people would say. If she disagreed with something she would argue her point until the person relented or they agreed to disagree. She stood up for herself, sometimes having to do it too much…that was how she got labeled the ice queen.

Troy remembered when high school had just started; Sharpay had gotten made fun of so much because she had had to wear glasses. She had just gotten her braces removed and was sporting an award winning smile that seemed to put a shake in Troy's knees even then. But the upperclassmen had started to rag on her. She stood her ground, but eventually ended up getting contacts just so she could blend in…but then…they set their sights on Ryan…

That had been the last straw for Sharpay. Her and her brother had always dressed impeccably well, most likely a result of early parental influence. The upperclassmen had connected Ryan's neatness for…well…a sway in gender preference. They had started to call Ryan all kinds of crude, spiteful, harsh things. Gay, fag, pansy, homo…all of it. Sharpay had snapped! She could care less about what people said about her, but when they had gone after Ryan…she went, well, ape shit on them. It ended up with one senior having a concussion, a junior with a busted eardrum, another senior with some broken toes, and a few juniors with stains on their pants. The rest were literally running as far away from Sharpay as fast as humanly possible.

After that, the seniors and juniors never bothered with the Evans twins again…no one did. It had been harder for Sharpay than it had been for Ryan. She was a girl, she had just wanted to do what every other girl was doing, making friends, going out with boys, and just being a girl…but she couldn't do that…no one would give her the time of day, convinced she was a witch with a capital B. Ryan had stuck by her though, proud of what his sister had done for him. He personally didn't care what everyone thought of him, but Sharpay had, and she had gone out on a limb that broke out from under her.

Troy had never been able to make fun of Sharpay the way his friends had. It just didn't seem right to him. She had given up everything to protect her brother, sticking up for him when no one would. Secretly, he had been proud of her. He loved her courage, the fact that she had come to school the very next day and made it through. That was when he had truly started to notice her without fear of getting cooties.

He laughed to himself as he thought about the stupid first four years of elementary school. The cootie epidemic had hit Albuquerque hard. The boys and girls had been terrified to go near each other unless it was absolutely necessary. Ryan and Sharpay had stuck together; the cooties didn't affect siblings. He thought back to that time, just before the cooties started, to kindergarten. He smiled softly in reminiscence; Sharpay had been his first kiss. She had fallen off the monkey bars and scraped her elbow so he kissed her to make it better. He raised his fingers; brushing them across his lips as he recalled the memory…Sharpay had definitely become a better kisser.

Just then, as if sensing his thoughts, Sharpay walked by. Ms. Darbus had been absent again, which meant that play was canceled. Troy could only guess at where Sharpay was heading…the auditorium. It was her area to think, much like the science gardens were his.

He followed her silently, she was by herself, most likely giving Ryan the go ahead to go home. She did go to the auditorium, making it all the way to the stage before she even realized Troy had followed her.

"What do you want Bolton?" She snapped, hoping to scare him off.

Her eyes betrayed her however; Troy could see the vulnerability shinning in them. "I want to talk about what happened yesterday."

"It's in the past." She said, turning around, hoping to snuff him, "There's nothing we can do about it now."

"You're wrong," he said walking on stage as well, "We need to talk about it…about us…"

She let out a scoff, "There is no us."

Troy winced unconsciously at that, she had sounded so harsh…so sure that nothing would ever, could ever happen between them.

"There could be…" he said softly, watching her carefully for her reaction. Of all the words she had expected Troy to say…those had not been it…she stopped walking, shoulders heaving slightly as she took a shaky breath.

"Don't joke Troy." She said simply, before mentally smacking herself. She hadn't meant to say that…now Troy would know that she did want something to happen.

"I'm not," he said in all seriousness. "Did you feel anything yesterday?"

Sharpay looked over her shoulder at him; he was so serious…did he truly want to be with her? She sighed about to nod her head when she shook it, she couldn't let him know…she couldn't give him hope. "Nothing."

Troy's eyes narrowed, she was lying. He didn't know how he knew, but he did, and he didn't question it. "You're lying."

Sharpay rolled her eyes, "And why would you think that?" she asked, "Your huge ego may not believe this, but you aren't god's gift to women Troy."

He rolled his eyes as well at her tone, why was she being so difficult. "And you're not the greatest thing to grace the eyes of men either!"

"How dare you!?" she said marching right up to him. "Let me tell you something Troy," she spat, poking him, "You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about alright. I do, and I'm telling you there is not now, nor will there ever be anything between us."

"You don't believe that." He said simply, grabbing her hand before she could poke him again. "I know you don't." He looked down at her hand; goosebumps were rising on her skin.

"Let go of me." She said dangerously.

"Why should I?" he asked staring her down as she did him.

Sharpay ripped her hand away from his, "Just go back to your girlfriend Troy."

"I don't want to!" he shouted, his voice echoing throughout the empty auditorium.

Sharpay gaped and stared at him. "You don't mean that," she said shakily.

"Yeah," he said defiantly, "I do."

"No…" Sharpay said starting to glare at him. Why couldn't he just walk away from this, "You don't."

"Don't tell me what I can and cannot do." Troy said glaring at her as well.

"Leave." Sharpay ordered, "Leave right now."

"No," Troy said, standing his ground.

"Troy just get out of here!" Sharpay shouted.

"Why the hell should I?" Troy challenged.

"God, why won't you just leave!?" Sharpay yelled at him.

"Because we're supposed to be together!" Troy shouted, face now red from all the screaming they had been doing. Why couldn't Sharpay just accept that he had feelings for her?

Sharpay's breath hitched as her eyes filled with more tears. She could feel her bones tremble at those words. It was true, they were supposed to be together, "We can't…" she whispered.

"Why not?" Troy whispered as well, eyeing her curiously, he could see it in her eyes she wanted this too, so why was she refusing?

She shook her head, "It isn't meant to be…" she said softly, sounding as if she were trying to convince herself more than Troy.

"Like hell it isn't!" Troy shouted, making Sharpay jump. Her head snapped up to see him breathing heavily. "It has to be…" he said softly, sensing Sharpay's fear at his sudden outburst. "Otherwise I'd be able to stop thinking about you…"

Sharpay just looked at him, shock evident in her eyes. Troy smirked a little, she hadn't been expecting that. Now was his chance to make her see, to make her understand, "I don't know what's going on…" he started, "It's like you've invaded my mind. You're all I can think about, you're all I can dream about. Every night I see your face haunting me in my dreams and all day I see you smiling and laughing with someone who isn't me and it's driving me crazy that you're so close to me and I can't have you!" He was ranting now, pacing the stage as Sharpay's eyes followed his movements, but he didn't care. "I just don't understand it! How did you do it? It's like you managed to worm your way under my skin and I don't even want you out! You managed to sneak into my thoughts, and now I can't even concentrate on anything because all I'm thinking about is what you might be doing at that same time. If you were thinking about me. If you were with some other boy! And this feeling…I feel this pull whenever I'm around you…it's like I have to be with you, to be near you, just to see you…whenever I'm around you…it's like the nothing else matters! It's like I can do anything, be anybody I want to be. It's like I'm truly able to break free…"

"You can break free with anybody," she said softly, almost too softly for Troy to hear her.

He shook his head, "But I want to do it with you…"

Sharpay shook her head again, as if trying to firm her resolve, "It isn't meant to be…"

"If it wasn't meant to be you wouldn't feel anything when I do this!" he stalked his way towards her with purpose. He grabbed her cheek and pulled her face up to meet his. Their lips locked and passion took over. They stayed that way for a minute or two, locked in a soul-searing kiss. "You wouldn't feel anything…" he whispered when he pulled away.

He was breathing heavily, waiting for something…some sign from Sharpay to indicate that she had felt _something_. Sharpay sighed and looked away, she had felt something…something amazing…but then the harsh reality of it all played before her eyes.

"_I cannot!" Subira shouted, tears clouding her vision as she tried to refuse the pharaoh's marriage offer. "I am a god wife!"_

"_And I am the god king!" Tehuti shouted as well, thankful that he had sent the guards to wait outside the room. "The gods themselves smile upon this union."_

"_It cannot be!" Subira shouted again, "I am a priestess of Amun I am not allowed to…"_

_Her words died off, cut off by Tehuti's lips on her own. Subira felt her heart speed up just as Tehuti pulled away from her. She had never experienced anything close to passion like that._

_Tehuti sighed, "You once said that nothing mattered but what I thought was right…I think…I know that this is right. This is meant to be."_

_Subira looked away unable to speak. Tehuti gently placed his thumb under her chin and turned her head to face him. "Was I not right in not murdering the riot leaders? Was that not the right decision?"_

_Subira felt a tear fall from her eye, which Tehuti wiped away before it could drag her black eye marks with it. She was too weak to deny her affections for the pharaoh. She_ _looked into his eyes before murmuring softly, "One cannot be right about everything…"_

He hadn't been right; their union had led to his downfall. She knew what happened in each of her memories…she knew where it all would lead. In each memory they had died…not from natural causes, not from old age…they had been killed or died before they even got to be together. She couldn't do it…she just couldn't…she wouldn't be able to handle it if something happened to Troy because of her…which seemed to happen often in her memories. She didn't want him to die because of her.

She let out a sigh before looking up into his eyes…and cursing herself for her foolishness…she never should have done that. Those sparkling pools of sapphires stared deep into her own, capturing her gaze. She couldn't have pulled herself away even is she wanted to…and at that moment there was nothing more she wanted to do than to stare into the blue eyes she knew so well.

"What do we do now Troy?" she asked shakily.

He smiled a 100-watt smile before pulling her into his embrace. He grinned into her hair, inhaling her scent. He pulled away smiling down at her, earning a soft smile from her as well. He looked deep into her sky blue eyes, sparkling with unshed tears.

"What do we do now Troy?" she repeated.

That seemed to get through to him, his smiled faded slightly. He looked down for a moment, "I…have no idea…" he admitted. He had only really thought out what he could possibly say to Sharpay and that was a far as he'd gotten.

Sharpay closed her eyes in thought, leaning her head against Troy's chest. "Gabriella's one of my best friends, I don't want her to get hurt."

Troy closed his eyes as well, hugging her tightly to him, "I don't either…she's a nice girl."

"So what can we do?" Sharpay asked.

They were both silent for a few minutes, each trying to think of some way to get through this whole mess. Neither wanted Troy to break it off with Gabriella just like that…it would crush her. They didn't want her to get hurt but it seemed inevitable since she cared about Troy…

"What if…we keep it a secret?" Troy asked, looking at Sharpay. He could see hurt flash quickly through her eyes, and he knew she thought he wanted to keep it a secret because of her. "I'll stop spending time with Gabriella…drift away I guess. After a few days, it won't matter that much whether we break up or not because we wouldn't have been spending time together…then we can come out as a couple."

Sharpay thought about it for a moment or two. If Troy drifted, Gabriella might care less about him…or at least it might not hurt her as much as it could. The only problem that Sharpay could see was keeping it a secret. She knew that every time she saw Troy she wanted nothing more than to run into his arms and stay there…and she was fairly certain that he felt the same way…especially because, she had noticed, whenever he saw her he would smile.

She took a breath before nodding her head in agreement; "It might work…" she trailed.

Troy nodded as well, "I hope it does." With that, he took her hand and the two walked out of the school, making sure that no one was there.

A/N – Next chapter will explain just what Chad and Taylor were doing in the auditorium the other day. It also involves suspicions arising as to the object of Troy's affections. It also might include an explanation for the death of Sericia of Rome. I'm so excited; this chapter marks the half way point of the story! It's half way over…tear…


	16. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

A/N - Wow...I just totally stumbled on a trailer by XxCandyxCounterxGirlxX...she made one of History Repeats Itself on youtube! It was great! Kudos to XxCandyxCounterxGirlxX for the awesom trailer!

The next day, Thursday, had been hard for both Sharpay and Troy. They had made painfully sure to keep their distance from each other, careful not to even touch each other. They refused to do anything even remotely flirty in school. Their plans consisted of acting like it was any other day in school, putting their passion into their roles, and going straight on AIM when they got home. They didn't want to risk someone seeing them anywhere, so they decided to talk throught the computer and video cam. They even went so far as to avoid each other's gaze at all cost. They thought later that they might have gone over the top with it though; Chad and Taylor had given them odd looks.

Chad and Taylor had yet to say anything to Gabriella about what they had witnessed. They had gone to the auditorium that Tuesday to pick up Chad's script, which he'd left in the prop room. The musical was only about two weeks away and Chad was still trying to get down one of the songs. They had both been in the school later than normal, Chad had Basketball and Taylor had the Decathlon practice. Chad had showered up and gone to meet Taylor at her locker before they headed towards the side door of the stage. They had opened the left side of the door. The left door never squeaked like the right one did…Chad always laughed at how squeaky noises annoyed Taylor. He had been about to burst out laughing when he caught sight of the two people before them

There they were…Troy and Sharpay making out in the middle of the stage! Chad's eyes widened significantly and he was sure he would have dropped the basketball he'd been carrying had Taylor not gripped his arm in shock, holding it in place. They both just stared at the two on stage, scarcely able to believe what was going on. Troy was holding onto Sharpay like it was the last time he might ever see her and Sharpay had a soft expression on her face like all her dreams…and fears…had come true.

He probably would have remained standing there, shell shocked, had Taylor not pulled him behind the curtains…just as Troy pulled away. It had been a close call; the couple had almost caught them. They hadn't been able to hear anything that was said after that, the only thing that they could hear was they door to the auditorium open and someone leave. They waited a moment longer, hearing the door open once more and someone else leave. A minute went by before they left their spot.

They had agreed after much discussion that they would wait till the next day to see what happens. For all they knew, Troy and Sharpay could have been rehearsing for the musical…it was a long shot but you never know. Their fears had been confirmed the next day…Troy couldn't keep his eyes off of Sharpay and Sharpay was avoiding him…something was definitely going on. They tried met up in the gym to try and figure out what was going on, agreeing to talk to Troy and Sharpay first about what was going on. They had looked everywhere for the two, the science gardens, the chorus room, doubling back to the gym…even the auditorium, but they weren't anywhere.

Chad had assured Taylor that he would try to talk to Troy today to see what was going on. If he couldn't get anything out of it…then they would have to think of a new course of action. Chad could only hope that Troy would talk to him…why wouldn't he though? They had been best friends for years, they told each other everything.

Chad hadn't been able to corner Troy till lunch. He'd been more determined than ever to get to Troy at lunch, Taylor had told him just the period before that Troy had had to cancel his date with Gabriella that afternoon after musical practice. He could only imagine what Troy would be doing with the extra time…who he'd be spending it with…

The Cafeteria was a bustle, especially if you were there right when the period started. Everyone was rushing everywhere to either try to get a table, or get a good place in line, or grab a tray before they ran out, or even to grab the last pudding cup.

Chad looked around, finally spotting Troy heading towards their usual table. He rushed over, managing to get next to Troy as he walked. "Hey man!" he shouted slightly over the noise of the crowd.

"Hey Chad…" Troy said, trying to avoid his friend's gaze. For some reason he got the feeling that Chad might be suspicious of him.

"So…what's been going on with you lately?" Chad asked, trying to keep the conversation casual. "You've been a little…out of it."

"Huh?" Troy asked facing him…he had just caught sight of Sharpay on the lunch line and had had to pull his gaze away. "Oh…nothing…I'm just nervous for the play."

"Right…" Chad said, stretching out his sarcasm. "Man, I still feel bad that you have to kiss the Ice Queen."

Troy bit his tongue to keep from retaliating to Chad's hurtful words, "Yeah…right…"

"I mean, I know she's changed but she's still such a bitch." Chad said sitting down with Troy, "Like the other day…she was walking and this freshman bumped into her, and she flipped on him! Guess you can't melt ice hearts right?" Chad continued, not giving Troy a chance to speak, "I mean, it's a good thing that you're not really in love with her like in the musical. How wrong would that be? No one would accept it if…"

Troy's attention drifted from Chad's words as his eyes glazed over, a distant memory playing before his eyes…

"_I can not have a son wed to a slave!" Quintus Julius Brunus shouted at his son as they stood in the foyer of their house. His son, Trenus, simply stood there, fists clenched at his sides as he glared at his father…unaware of the figure near the doorway listening to the argument. _

"_I cannot believe you!" His father shouted again, "How could you do something as foolish as make this known! How could you make this union public knowledge?! The senate is still young, you do not know how the people will react to this!"_

"_I do not care!" Trenus shouted for what must have been the hundredth time._

"_I will not support this union!" Brunus retaliated, "You shall not have my blessing."_

_A small gasp was heard from behind him. Trenus spun to see Sericia standing in the doorway hand covering her mouth, eyes wide in fear. Not having a father's blessing was almost as if a curse was to fall on the union. She quickly scrambled to gather the vase of water that she had dropped, ignoring the water soaked up by her stola. She grabbed the vase before turning and rushing away to collect more water._

"_Sericia!" Trenus shouted, glaring at his father before going after her…_

Troy's eyes focused just enough to see Sharpay rushing out of the room, Chad still trashing her, not having noticed that she had been just a few feet away the entire time.

Troy stood up, his eyes glazing over once again as he turned to rush after Sharpay…but he was stopped. Chad had gotten up as well, and now stood in his way, hands out to stop Troy from running past. He tried to push past Chad, but he held his ground and forced Troy back to his seat before everyone in the cafeteria noticed what happened.

"What is up with you man?" Chad asked angrily, slumping down into the seat across from his friend. Troy's attention wasn't on Chad however, it was solely focused on the door that Sharpay had just walked through...he couldn't understand why Chad had stopped him from going after her. Chad rolled his eyes before snapping his fingers, drawing Troy's attention back to him.

"Troy!" He shouted, getting Troy to look at him…but he could tell that his mind still wasn't there. He was just staring at him with a sort of dazed expression, before looking down at the table. Chad's eyes narrowed as he watched his friend shake his head, almost as if trying…and failing…to clear his head.

"Look, Troy…" he started, sighing, "I'm your friend right? Your best friend." Troy looked up at that, but still stared out at the cafeteria rather than at him. "Why won't you tell me what's going on?"

Troy shook his head again…what _was_ going on? All he could remember was daydreaming a little and then seeing Sharpay rush off. He had this urge to go after her…that something bad was going to happen if he didn't catch up to her. Chad had stopped him, knocking him back into reality, but not before Troy felt like knocking him out to get to Sharpay. He closed his eyes, breathing deep, trying to figure things out. He couldn't hurt Chad; he was his best friend…but the sight of Sharpay…running away from him…

He looked up, dazedness finally starting to leave his face…only to see that Chad had continued to talk while Troy was thinking. He had absolutely no idea what Chad was talking about.

"…secret long enough." Chad said looking Troy in the eye. It was then that Troy saw it…the look in Chad's eye…he knew…he knew about him and Sharpay. But then the look was replaced by anger, where it came from Troy didn't know. "And I'm sick of it. Best friends are supposed to tell each other everything. And now you're keeping secrets from me?" He scoffed, pushing away from the table, getting up and walking off.

"Hey Troy," a perky voice said placing a tray next to him. He glanced up to see Gabriella sitting down. He looked past her to see Taylor talking to Chad, trying to calm him down.

He felt bad for not talking to Chad about anything…but he honestly didn't know what was happening either…all these day dreams and night dreams were starting to drive him crazy! He looked back at Gabriella, smiling awkwardly, "Hey…" he said. He saw Taylor and Chad heading back towards the table before getting up silently and walking out…maybe he could find Sharpay…

Gabriella watched him go, a sad smile on her face. She didn't know what was going on with him lately. Chad and Taylor shot each other a concerned glance before taking a seat with Gabriella.

A/N – Next chapter will be Taylor and Chad's next course of action, possibly a little Troypay, but mostly their plan B…involving Gabriella and…Ryan?


	17. Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Taylor took a deep breath as she headed to Chemistry the next day. She and Chad had met after the musical practice to try and come up with something that they could do. They didn't want to flat out tell Gabriella that Troy was cheating on her behind her back…they weren't 100 percent positive yet. Chad hadn't managed to get anything out of Troy the day before. Today was her last day to do something and if they didn't…well…then they had the weekend to come up with something else.

So far, the most that they had managed to come up with was for Taylor to talk to Gabriella about Troy and his…lack of interest? She didn't know how to phrase it…she didn't know what it was. Taylor had figured, maybe, just maybe, she could get Gabriella to break it off with Troy first so that her heart wouldn't be broken later. She doubted that Troy would be too heartbroken if Gabs broke up with him, but it would put Gabriella in a world of pain if he did it to her.

Chad was supposed to talk to Troy that afternoon as well during basketball practice. But it was Taylor's duty to work on Gabriella during Chemistry. Today they were paired up to work on a packet to review the lab they had done the day before. It gave Taylor the perfect opportunity to talk to Gabriella without being overheard because everyone would be talking to each other…the only difference would be was that Taylor wouldn't be talking about Chemistry.

"Hey Tay," Gabriella greeted as Taylor sat down. Gabriella already had the packet in front of her and had started as well. Taylor greeted her, looking over at the first page, nearly completely finished.

Taylor smiled softly, Gabriella was her best friend. She was pretty much the only one that she could talk to about anything…she was pretty much the only one who could understand what she said. Especially when she started speaking in scientific jargon, as was her habit. She really didn't want to see her best friend hurt…more so, she didn't want to lie to her or keep secrets from her.

They worked on he packet for a while, Gabriella did most of the work, Taylor only put in her opinion a few times as she tried to come up with something to say. "Hey Gabs…" Taylor started when they were nearly half way finished.

"Uh huh," Gabriella said, not looking up from the packet.

"How are things with you and Troy?" she asked before mentally smacking herself. 'Great,' she thought, 'Now she's going to think something is going on.'

Gabriella smiled softly, "Things are going good," she said, "A little tense, like it was last year with the musical and stuff, but we're good."

"Are you sure?" she asked. 'God Taylor shut your mouth!' her mind screamed at her.

Gabriella looked up, eyeing her friend curiously, "I'm sure…is something wrong Tay?"

Taylor smiled awkwardly at her before shaking her head, "No, nothing's wrong…I've just been…thinking…"

"About what?" she asked, shaking her head in confusion.

"You and Troy…" she started when Gabriella cut her off.

"Not this again," Gabriella mumbled, "Taylor, Troy is not going to take my focus off of the squad. We won the semi finals, we're going to the finals, and I'll be there."

"I know, I know," she reaffirmed, "It's just…you both seemed so distant lately. And I just think that you can…you know…do better…"

"Than the lunk head basketball guy right?" Gabriella asked defensively.

"No! It's not that, believe me it isn't."

"Then what is it?"

Taylor looked at Gabriella, her eyes flashing in anger. Taylor couldn't think of anything to say but… "Maybe he likes someone else!"

Gabriella stared at her, "What?" she asked, shaking her head in disbelief, "You think he's cheating on me?"

"No!" Taylor shouted, trying to cover up her mistake…earning odd looks from everyone else. "I just…"

"Look Taylor," Gabriella said, cutting her off, "I trust Troy. He's a great guy, he would never do that to me." Taylor opened her mouth to say something, but Gabriella continued, "You know what…I think I'm gonna go to the nurse's office. Finish up for me?"

She didn't even let Taylor answer as she walked over to the teacher to ask for a pass to the nurse. Taylor knew that she wasn't really sick, she just didn't want to deal with Taylor right not.

Taylor waited till she was out the door before letting out a sigh; she really blew it this time…

Chad had tried to corner Troy again that day…but Troy had managed to avoid him. He had been wandering the halls for a while now; trying to find Troy in the fifteen minutes they had before heading to musical practice. He was about to round the corner to where Troy's locker was when he ran into someone. Neither fell to the ground, but both had to take a few stumbling steps back.

Chad looked up to see Ryan Evans standing before him, "Hey man, sorry 'bout that." Chad said, holding out a hand to shake Ryan's.

"No problem, my fault too," Ryan said doing one of those guy handshake things. They were about to pass each other when Chad heard Ryan call, "Hey Chad, I've been looking for Sharpay everywhere, do you know where she might be?"

Chad thought about it for a moment…he knew whom she was probably with, but he didn't know where Troy was either, "I might know, have you seen Troy?"

Ryan shook his head before continuing down the hall. 'Wait,' he thought, stopping a moment and staring at the ground in confusion, 'What does Troy have to do with that? Does he know where Sharpay is? But Chad was looking for Troy too…are they both missing?'

Ryan shook his head. All that thinking was hurting his head. "Hey Ryan!" he heard a voice shout from down the hall.

He turned to see Gabriella running towards him, "Hey Gabby."

"Have you seen Troy anywhere?" she asked. He shook his head and she frowned. She had been trying to find him to ask whether he'd like to do something with her after the musical practice that day…or maybe over the weekend. But she hadn't had any luck with that. "I haven't been able to find him all day."

"I know what you mean," Ryan said as they continued to walk towards the auditorium, "I haven't been able to find Sharpay either…and I'm in half her classes!"

Gabriella laughed at that, pushing the small nagging voice that started at the mention of Sharpay to the back of her head.

Ryan held the door to the auditorium open for her as she walked by blushing and muttering a small 'thank you'. Together they walked down the aisle towards the stage…splitting when they reached the last row of chairs to go sit with their friends. Gabriella with Taylor, and Ryan with Sharpay who was talking with Ms. Darbus.

Gabriella looked up when she heard the stage door across the room open. Troy had just entered, their eyes locked for a split second before he looked away, almost as if he hadn't even seen her. He walked towards the middle row of chairs and sat down. He couldn't sit near Gabriella, couldn't look at her...for fear that she would see the change in him. He and Sharpay had ditched the AIM plan...it just wasn't working. They had ended up ending their chat with Sharpay running over to Troy's house to hang out. Seeing the other online, but not able to touch them had been unbearable. So had pretending to not even be slightly interested in the other. They had ended up eating lunch together just to see the other...something that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do because Ryan and Chad had been looking for them all day. He looked up to see Chad heading towards him, knowing full well that he was in for another question/answer session for his where abouts. He groaned inwardly as Chad sat next to him, opening his mouth to begin the questioning...

A/N – Next chapter, Taylor and Chad come up with a plan for Troy and Sharpay while more of Troy's memories start to resurface. This chapter was a little short, the next one might be also…but the one after should be long enough…that one involves someone else finding out about the new couple.


	18. Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

A/N - Just to warn you, this chapter is really short, barely even 1000 words. But that just makes me more determined to make the next chapter three times as long :)

Chad sat outside East High that Monday, hands together under his chin, waiting for Taylor to show up. They had spent the whole weekend trying to come up with something to do about Sharpay and Troy. They knew that they had to do something before Gabriella found out. They had managed to keep Troy and Sharpay away from each other nearly all weekend. Taylor had gotten Gabriella and Sharpay to go shopping with her nearly all day on Sunday…everyone was too exhausted from the Saturday rehearsal to do anything other than sleep. Chad had gotten the team together for a little unscheduled practice at the park, making sure that Troy was exhausted as well.

They had both met afterwards to talk about what to do…and they only had one option left…break them up…

They knew that they had failed to do that when Troy was going out with Gabriella, but now they were even more determined t succeed. A friend was more important than social cliques. They had absolutely no idea how they were going to do it…Troy and Sharpay hadn't been public with their affections so they couldn't ask for help from the basketball team or the decathlon squad. Heck, they couldn't even ask them for help anyway! Sharpay wasn't part of the decathlon team so they could care less, and the basketball team had learned from their last mistake with Gabriella. The only people they would have been able to go to be the Drama Club, but they didn't know about the couple…and they were too afraid of Sharpay to do anything anyway.

"Hey," he heard a voice say as a hand rested on his shoulder.

He turned, standing up once he saw that it was Taylor, "Hey," he leaned forward, giving her a small kiss before pulling back to look at her. It was then that he noticed the look on her face, "You ok?"

Taylor nodded nervously; looking around to make sure that no one was watching or listening to them. "Do you think we're doing the right thing?" she asked.

Chad sighed, before nodding, "We just don't want Gabriella to get hurt."

Taylor nodded again, a little more confidently. The warning bell went off just then, both turned to look at the school. People were now scurrying to make it into the building and to their lockers before the late bell was to go off. They looked back at each other for a moment longer, holding their gaze, recognition from the last time they had met to destroy a relationship flashing through their eyes. A moment later they turned away from each other and walked in their separate directions.

Through out the day, neither Taylor nor Chad had been able to get to Troy or Sharpay. They were as elusive as the sun on a cloudy day. And when one of them saw their intended targets other people surrounded them. Chad had been lucky when he managed to catch up to Troy on his way to basketball practice.

"Hey Troy!" he shouted, smacking Troy on the back…

…_felt a hand smash into his back. He spun quickly as he had been instructed and conditioned to do, chain mail not even hindering his movements as he grabbed the hand that resided there before twisting it behind the back of his attacker…_

…Troy spun, grabbing Chad's arm and twisted it behind him. He had been about to kick Chad away from him when Chad let out a yelp of pain snapping Troy back to the world of reality.

"Sorry…" Troy said, letting go of Chad immediately.

"What the hell was that?" Chad asked, rubbing his arm and shoulder.

Troy shook his head…he didn't know. He had just been walking down the hall, trying to shake his head clear. He had fallen asleep during his last class of the day and had had an odd dream. He had been dressed in a simple tunic and leggings, surrounded by boys his same age. There had been an older man walking by them, eyeing their posture and movements as they practiced.

They were partnered up, practicing their defenses, tossing each other over their shoulders and pinning arms behind their back. A boy that Troy recognized as being similar to himself had just tossed a boy over his shoulder. They man walked over to them, watching Troy's technique before walking off with a nod of approval.

Troy had jumped awake just when the bell rang…and now he was reacting to things that happened in his dream…Maybe he wasn't fully awake yet? That could explain why he almost broke his best friend's arm just now.

Chad sighed, rolling his eyes, Troy really was acting weird. "Never mind, let's just go to practice so we can get to the musical rehearsal."

Troy nodded following Chad towards the gym. Chad walked in, but Troy paused a moment in the doorway. He looked up down the hall; something drew his eye in that direction. There, just by her locker, was Sharpay. She was looking at him with a curious expression that he couldn't quite read. He eyed her worriedly, she looked tired, he knew she hadn't been sleeping well, she had told him. He smiled softly at her, nodding before he walked into the gym.

Sharpay watched as he left, smiling tiredly to herself as well…maybe he was remembering…

A/N – Very short chapter…I know, possibly, the shortest I've written yet. Probably because it was more about Taylor and Chad than Sharpay and Troy, but the next chapter should be a lot longer. Including a blur between reality and a memory for Sharpay…which leads to a worried Troy…which leads to someone finding out their secret…


	19. Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Sharpay yawned again as she pushed her lunch away from her. She cursed her memories, most were clear to her, as clear as her actual memories, but some were still a little fuzzy. And every night, her memories replayed themselves before her eyes. She knew there must have been a reason why most of her fuzzy memories ended up being horrible ones. Every night she woke up wanting to scream from the horror of the visions. She knew that the ones that you don't want to remember take the longest to resurface. The only good thing that came from the constant nightmares was that when she awoke, it was one less nightmare she would have. Every time she woke up, the memory was crystal clear like the others.

She was loosing a lot of sleep, but she'd rather remember something important than forget something that could affect her decisions and…well…her life. Every memory she had would help her keep Troy safe, keep him from getting hurt. If she could see the signs of what was coming, then she could avoid it.

She had already resolved that if the nightmares hadn't stopped by the time the musical was to take place, in little more than a week, she would take some sleeping pills to ensure a full night's rest.

She got up from her table, each week on Tuesdays, the Drama club would meet at their table on the balcony of the cafeteria to just talk about the play or musical. No one really noticed when Sharpay stood or when she moved to go sit on the ledge of the balcony. Sharpay sighed as she looked out at the students of East High, everyone eating lunch together and just enjoying their newfound friendships…

…but what are friendships without a little conflict…

Sharpay watched as a skater dude and an academic stood from their table arguing over something she couldn't hear. No one really seemed to be paying that much attention to it…until the fists started flying.

Pretty soon the whole table that the boys had been sitting at was involved in a huge fistfight! People were rushing from other tables to go stop them, to pull the boys apart, but most just ended up getting pulled into the brawl.

Sharpay stood up from her spot, eyes widening as she watched the fight grow in intensity as well as size. The last thing she saw before she closed her eyes to the sight was Troy and Chad running towards the fighting boys to pull them away. When she opened her eyes…a different sight greeted her…

_She stood upon the marble wall of the pharaoh's palace, watching as the war was waged. Rademens had started yet another war against the pharaoh. He had been beaten once_ _before and had had to give up his priestess…since then his land had not had the blessings of the gods…and he had had no respect. He struck without warning, pulling Tehuti into another battle…one that Subira feared he might not win._

_Her hands gripped the edge of the wall as she watched the battle. Tehuti was out there…fighting Rademens…for her…_

"Shar…"

_She bit her bottom lip as her eyes scanned the war zone frantically, trying to spot Tehuti in the chaos. She knew the union between her and the pharaoh was a cursed one. Word had spread quickly back to Rademens that his priestess had been wed to the pharaoh who had beaten him. It was not bad enough that Tehuti had stolen his priestess…now he had stolen her heart as well. And Rademens would be damned if he let the insanity continue._

_He had attacked…_

"Sharpay."

_Tears filled her eyes as she looked back at the women of the court, crying into each other's shoulders at the thought of their loves fighting a loosing battle out there. She turned away unable to stand their tears. She looked at the small fleet that Tehuti had managed to gather upon the moments notice, seemingly nothing to Rademens' endless supply of men._

_Her breath hitched in her throat when she spotted Tehuti's armor gleaming in the sun. Her eyes were trained on him…only on him as she watched him fighting with none other than Rademens himself._

"Sharpay!"

_Her eyes widened as she saw Rademens knock the scythe out of Tehuti's hands. She glanced around at the people fighting…all dieing in endless bloodshed for something as worthless as her. She couldn't take it…she looked back at Tehuti, tears finally falling from her eyes as she saw Rademens raise his sword to strike the final blow…_

"STOP!"

Ryan practically jumped out of his skin when his sister shouted. He had gotten up when the brawl broke out to see what was going on. He then noticed that Sharpay was watching everything with an extremely worried expression and a glazed over look to her eyes…almost as if she was reliving something extremely painful.

He had tried getting through to her, trying to nudge her out of her daze…but to no avail. He had really started to get worried when tears had started to fill her eyes. He had tried two more times to get through to her…finally about to shake her out of her thoughts when she had shouted.

He looked out at the crowd, seeing that everyone had stopped fighting. People froze in place with their fist raised, hand grabbing onto the shirt collars of others, hands pressing napkins to their bloody noises. No one was paying attention to the nonexistent fight anymore…instead they were all staring at Sharpay who now had tears streaming down her face.

She was breathing heavily now, scarcely able to believe that she had just shouted like that. Not even when she had been so angry with Gabriella last year has she shouted like that. She had been loud, yes, projecting, of course, but never with such emotion behind her words. This memory had been different, she had seen the war that Tehuti had fought in...but a certain times she saw flashes of color...kids from the cafeteria appeared during the battle...and just at the end...Tehuti had been replaced by Troy...she couldn't take it. She took one more breath before running out of the room.

Everyone was so focused on Sharpay that no one…not even Chad…noticed Troy run out of the room as well. Just before Sharpay had shouted, there had been a fist coming straight at his face…but then she had and everything stopped.

Something was wrong…

Troy ran into the hall, barely managing to catch sight of Sharpay as she ran down the hall towards an empty classroom. He had been shocked at first, fully expecting her to head towards the auditorium…but then he remembered that some people were going over the music for the musical during lunch.

Sharpay burst into the room, hand clamped to her forehead as the room started to spin. She stumbled and nearly fell to the floor when two arms wrapped themselves around her, holding her up. She turned in the arms, wrapping her arms around his waist, recognizing the scent of Troy Bolton anywhere. Only then, when she felt Troy's arms tighten around her comfortingly, did she let out the sob she had been holding in.

Troy held onto her for everything he was worth, whispering soft nothings in her ear trying in vain to calm her down. "What's wrong?" he whispered, rocking her back and forth.

Sharpay shook her head into Troy's shoulder, "I don't know…" she whispered. She could tell she was about to break down to him…he'd probably think she was crazy when she finished…but she didn't care. She had been keeping all her thoughts bottled up for so long, and the lack of sleep, it was all starting to get to her.

She took a deep breath, and Troy immediately knew that she was going to tell him something about what had happened. "I don't know what's going on…" she sobbed, "I've been having all these weird dreams…visions…fantasies…whatever they're called…and it's driving me crazy!"

Troy's eyes widened when he heard those words leave Sharpay's mouth…she had been having weird dream too?

But that wasn't the end of Sharpay's breakdown, "Every night I have these nightmares about things that I've never seen and things that never happened to me and I don't know why! It's like I have all these different memories flying through my head and they aren't mine!" She took a shaky breath, "I don't know what to do…"

She cried a little more…and Troy couldn't take it anymore. He gently lifted her chin to face him before leaning in and capturing her lips in a gentle kiss…one that quickly grew in intensity. For one single moment, neither cared that someone could have walked past the door and seen them…neither cared that at any moment they could be caught…they only cared about each other.

Troy pulled away gently; smiling a little that Sharpay wasn't crying anymore…his kiss seemed to have calmed her down. "I've…had dreams too…" he admitted softly to her. She looked up into his eyes frantically…eyes filled with a mixture of hope and concern.

"You…have?" she asked, voice hoarse from crying.

Troy nodded uncertainly, not sure whether he should continue…he didn't want to make her more upset. "Yeah," he took a breath, "About different places…Rome…a war…"

"Egypt," she finished for him.

He nodded; pulling her into a thankful hug…he wasn't alone… "We'll figure this out…" he said, standing and pulling Sharpay up with him, "…together."

Sharpay smiled softly, nodding as Troy took her hand and led her out of the room. They walked down the hall towards the auditorium…Troy leading the way; he knew that the stage would help to calm Sharpay down a lot more than she was…

They walked down the hall, passing by another empty classroom where one lone figure sat. Gabriella sat at a desk, staring out the window at nothing in particular, a sad, heartbroken expression on her face. Slowly, a single tear trickled down her face…she refused to cry. She had been walking to lunch from going over a song with Ms. Darbus when she heard crying coming from what she had thought to be an empty classroom…

But it wasn't empty at all…sitting in side was Sharpay, crying her eyes out into…Troy's shoulder…

She had smiled softly at that, at Troy comforting a friend. She had been about to go in there to ask what was wrong when Troy leaned forward and…kissed Sharpay…It hadn't even been a friendly kiss either…it quickly escalated into a passionate one…one much more passionate than any that she had shared with Troy. And the worse thing was…Troy initiated it…and didn't even pull away when it got deeper…

She had backed away from the room slowly…not believing what she was seeing. Troy was…cheating on her…with Sharpay…

She stumbled into another empty classroom, unable to watch the couple any longer. Was that why Troy had become so distant and elusive? Was that why he had been canceling their dates and avoiding her like the plague?

Then a thought struck her…was that what Taylor had been trying to get at the other day? Did she know something? It would make sense if she did…Chad was Troy's best friend and of course Taylor wouldn't want to come out and tell Gabriella that Troy was a backstabbing bastard…

She took a deep breath, wiping the tear from her face before getting up. She swayed a little before making her way out into the hall and towards the nurse's office…she wasn't feeling that well…

A/N – So…Gabriella knows…now what? Will Taylor find out that Gabriella knows? If she does, what do you think she will do? Next Chapter will be about a strained relationship and an accident…but for whom? Muwahaha!


	20. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Troy stood at his locker, just staring at the books he would need for his next class. He had just finished lunch with the gang. He sighed, Gabriella had stayed home today, sick. He had really hoped that she would have come to school today, Wednesday…he had wanted to break up with her.

He had managed to avoid her for nearly a week now and he wasn't sure he'd be able to keep doing it with out explaining why. Today he was going to pull her off to the side and gently break it to her…but she hadn't been there. He had asked Taylor where she was but all Taylor did was tell him that Gabby was home sick and glare at him. He didn't know why she glared at him…but he had a suspicion about it. If Chad knew about him and Sharpay it would only be a matter of time before Taylor knew.

That explained why lunch had been tense. Everyone had gotten together to eat, Zeke, Jason, Kelsi, Ryan, Chad, Taylor, Troy, and Sharpay. Everyone could tell that there was something going on by the way Taylor kept glaring at Sharpay…

And she had a good reason too! Taylor had not spoken to Sharpay all day…something that really got to Sharpay because she considered Taylor to be one of her good friends. All through lunch she fixed Sharpay with her patented 'Eternal Glare of Hatred', something she only used for people she despised.

Taylor had never hated someone more in her life than she did Sharpay at that moment. It was because of her that Troy was going to break up with Gabriella. It was because of her that Gabriella was going to get her heart broken…had gotten her heart broken. Taylor had gone to give Gabriella her homework the day before and had come across an odd sight…Gabriella crying…

"Sharpay!" Troy heard someone shout. He looked up to see Taylor heading purposefully towards Sharpay. He was about to go over there, it couldn't have ended well, when Chad came up to him and started to rag on him about what he was doing with Sharpay.

Sharpay turned quickly from her trek towards her next class when she heard Taylor call her name. She let out a sigh…it was an angry yell…so much for Taylor talking to her again.

"Hey Tay…" she started watching as Taylor stalked up to her. The next thing Sharpay knew, a stinging sensation had filled her left cheek…Taylor had slapped her!

Sharpay quickly put her hand to her cheek, eyes starting to fill with tears from the pain when Taylor continued. "Don't call me that!" she shouted right in Sharpay's face. "Only my _friends_ can call me that."

"Taylor I…"

"Don't you dare speak to me Sharpay Evans!" Taylor shouted at her, taking a step forwards, pushing Sharpay back. "I cannot believe you! I honestly thought you had changed but no! You haven't! Do you know where Gabriella is right now? Do you?"

Sharpay shook her head, and Taylor scoffed, "She's at home, crying her eyes out because of you and Troy! She saw you Sharpay, she knows! Did you even consider her feelings when you started making out with her boyfriend?"

Taylor stood there fuming, waiting for Sharpay's answer. All she did was stare at Taylor in shock.

"God! I mean what were you thinking?!" Taylor shouted walking towards Sharpay once again, forcing Sharpay to take a few stumbling steps back. "Was that your plan all along? To break up Troy and Gabriella?"

"Taylor no! I…" Sharpay started, backing up more and more while various students parted behind her.

"Or maybe it was jealousy? Huh? Was that it?" Taylor fumed, "You couldn't stand not getting the lead so you pretended to be Gabriella's friend till you could break her?!"

"I…"

"And you honestly wonder why no one likes you!" Taylor shouted, throwing her arms out. Sharpay continued to walk backwards…not even noticing that she hadn't walked into a wall yet…

"You don't deserve friends like us!" Taylor continued, "You'll always be the Ice Queen!"

Taylor couldn't continue her angry rant because at that moment Sharpay let out a scream…neither had noticed that the stairs were right behind Sharpay…

Troy looked over hearing Sharpay scream, turning in time to see her fall backwards. His eyes glazed over as he ran over…

_Tom Brando smiled at the beautiful woman beside him as they stepped out of the restaurant. He and Susan had gone out to the restaurant to celebrate one whole year of their relationship. He remembered the first time he had met her, they had ended up going to get coffee to discuss the situation of the public schools in the area. They had ended up talking about the schools for hours, and he had invited her to his favorite restaurant for dinner. Today they had celebrated their one-year anniversary. _

_He wrapped his arms around her waist as they walked, hand resting on the gentle bump of her stomach. He still couldn't get over the fact that they were going to have a baby together. He hadn't been able to get the smile off his face since she told him…a fact that his coworkers and campaign group had not failed to notice._

_The only thing that brought a damper on his mood was thinking of his campaign team. They had not been too pleased with his radical change in views. Ever since he met Susan, his eyes had been opened to all the corrupt workings on the political system. He had started to support different groups and ideals then he had been…something they weren't too happy about. _

_He couldn't understand it, he was leading in the poles, almost everyone in Massachusetts was rooting for him, his support group had nearly tripled since he met Susan. He was the leading man in the social revolution. Here he was, an all American man, born and raised in Massachusetts, running for senator…in a relationship with a teacher, expecting a child, out of wed lock…something never before thought acceptable._

_He hugged Susan once more, giving her a kiss as he turned to walk down the street. He turned to wave to her, watching as she stood at the entrance to the Subway, they always watched each other leave till they were out of sight…a sort of tradition. He smiled wider when he saw her raise her hand to wave…but then his world came crashing down…_

_A shot rang out and the next thing he knew Tom was watching as Susan fell backwards down the stairs of the subway. His eyes widened in fear as he ran to the subway, praying that he make it there in time…in time for what, he didn't know…_

_He stopped at the top of the stairs to see, a few people gathered around the body of Susan. She was on her side, hand resting over her stomach…blood flowing from under her. One of the people, gently turned her on her back and Tom saw it…the wound just under her left shoulder…where her heart was…_

_He turned looking around at the people running frantically away from the scene. Something on the top of one of the restaurants drew his attention and he saw it. A man was positioned on the roof of a nearby building…gun aimed at Tom. His orders had been to eliminate the woman…unless his position was compromised where as he was to eliminate the man as well. A spilt second later another shot rang out and Tom Brando felt to the ground…_

Troy's eyes widened when he reached the stairs. Taylor was still standing there in shock at what had happened as Troy gazed down at Sharpay for a split second before running down the stairs. Sharpay was curled at the bottom of the stairs, starting to move slightly, groaning softly.

"Sharpay!" Troy called, crouching down next to her. He took her hand in his as she let out a soft whimper.

A moment later the school nurse came running up the other stairs, someone had managed to remain calm enough to call the nurse to the scene. "Miss Evans!" She shouted shocked. Sharpay tried to move but the nurse gently laid a hand on her, "Don't move…" the nurse replied, voice getting softer and softer as Sharpay's world faded away…

Sharpay woke up with a terrible headache unsure whether it was from before she woke up…or because the walls of the room she was laying in were completely white. She looked around, noticing that she was in a hospital room…what happened?

The events of the day slowly came back to her. Taylor had been yelling at her about Gabriella…she found out about her and Troy. She had been walking back to avoid Taylor when she stumbled and fell…She remembered that there had been no solid ground beneath her foot when she stepped back the last time. She had turned to see the stair looming up in front of her as she held out her hands to brace her self. She remembered pain, someone calling her name, and someone else telling her not to move before her world went black.

She looked out of the doorway to the room; she could see Chad and Taylor standing there…with Troy. Taylor had tears falling from her eyes while Chad remained stone faced as he talked to Troy about something. She saw Troy's shoulders slump as Chad looked up and noticed Sharpay was awake. He said something to Troy and he turned to walk into the room…a sad expression on his face…something was wrong…

A/N – Sharpay has the worst luck doesn't she? So what's up with Troy? Find out in the next Chapter…


	21. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

They succeeded…their plan had worked…Troy had broken up with Sharpay. It had happened the day before…just after Sharpay had fallen down the stairs at school and was taken to the hospital. The principal refused to let Troy, Ryan, Chad, and Taylor go to see her until school was over. But it wouldn't have mattered anyway, when they arrived at the hospital Sharpay had been taken to, they had been told that she hadn't woken up yet.

Troy immediately went to her room and positioned himself as her designated watcher. He just sat there with his hand in hers for hours with Ryan sitting across from him. Taylor and Chad had stayed in the waiting room, talking about what had happened. They honestly hadn't meant for Sharpay to get hurt…Taylor had just been trying to scare and guilt her into stopping things with Troy. She hadn't seen the stairs behind Sharpay either…but she still blamed herself.

Ryan came out of the room a few hours later saying that he was going to go get everyone some food and took their orders. After they had eaten, Ryan returned home, asking them to call him when Sharpay woke up…he hated hospitals…he hated seeing the people he loved in hospitals more.

No one blamed him and each promised to call him when he left. Taylor and Chad sat down, talking for another hour before they finally came up with a course of action. They stood and headed back to the room to talk to Troy.

Chad frowned when he recalled what Taylor had said on the way, "You know we're going to hate ourselves for this right?"

Chad had merely nodded and called Troy out of the room to talk. That discussion had been one of the hardest, lowest, dirtiest discussions Chad had ever forced himself through. He felt bile rise in his throat just thinking about it.

(A/N – This isn't a Troypay flashback, but it is Chad's memory of the conversation he had with Troy)

"_Hey man," Chad said as Troy walked hauntingly out of the room. It was creepy to see his friend like that…pretty much unresponsive and dead to the world. It was almost like if Sharpay were to die right then Troy would…Chad snapped himself out of thoughts like that._

"_Hey…" Troy replied hoarsely, he hadn't had anything to eat or drink all day. _

"_Man you must feel like shit," Chad continued with a supportive nod from Taylor._

"_Why?" Troy asked._

"_You're the reason Sharpay here," Chad replied as nonchalantly as possible._

"_What?" Troy asked, getting angry. How the hell could Chad try to blame this on him when it had been Taylor who backed Sharpay up to the stairs?_

"_I mean, the only reason Taylor was arguing with her was because of what you did to Gabriella," Chad elaborated, "Think about it man, if Gabriella hadn't found out about your little fling with Sharpay, she wouldn't have been home crying all day."_

"_She saw you Troy." Taylor added, finally speaking up, trying to ignore the shock and hurt forming in Troy's eyes, "She saw you kiss after lunch yesterday."_

"_Taylor was just sticking up for her friend," Chad said, putting an arm around Taylor's shoulders when he noticed tears forming in her eyes. "If you'd stayed with Gabriella, none of this would have happened to Sharpay…it's all your fault…"_

Chad shook his head…his words had been harsh to say the least…but they had the desired affect. Troy had broken up with Sharpay as soon as she had woken up a few minutes later. He believed Chad's excuse that it had been his fault that Sharpay had been hurt, that if it hadn't been for him, she wouldn't have been in the hospital. Chad and Taylor had stood at the door watching as Troy broke Sharpay's heart…

Sharpay had had to remain in the hospital all the next day for observations. It turned out Thursday night that she was mostly fine. Her arm hurt from landing on it and her back was strained slightly. She was allowed to go home the next day, but was to stay in bed and miss yet another day of school.

So that was how she'd found herself laying in her bed Friday afternoon, replaying the events from Wednesday. She had refused to cry when Troy broke up with her…honestly…she had been expecting it…or at least hoping for it. She was positive that it was because of her that Troy would get hurt…and she didn't want that to happen. If they were apart, then no one would physically get hurt. It pained them greatly inside, but Sharpay would rather live a life where Troy was with another girl…alive…than with her and dead in a few years.

She hoped that things would be better when she returned to school on Monday. Maybe by then Troy would have apologized to Gabriella and they'd get back together…or at least…she didn't know what she was hoping for. It hurt too much to think about the coming school day.

Sharpay rolled over onto her back and stared at her ceiling a moment longer before closing her eyes and falling into a fitful sleep…

Troy grabbed the basketball forcefully from Chad's hands as they continued their rigorous game of Basketball behind Troy's house. Chad had tried to stop the game for the last two hours, but Troy would have none of it, and Chad was really worried about his friend.

Troy hadn't eaten anything since Sharpay had been in the hospital. No dinner Wednesday, no meals Thursday, and he threw out his lunch today and passed up the dinner offer his own mother had given him. Worse yet, Troy had not stopped playing basketball since he broken up. If it wasn't basketball, it was exercising, or running the track, or doing something straining. Chad was really worried that Troy would push himself into exhaustion…and he wasn't the only one.

Everyone on the team had noticed Troy's focus on the game. They knew that he used Basketball as a way to get his mind off of things…and if his mind was always on Sharpay…then he'd always have to play basketball. Wednesday night was the first night Coach Bolton noticed something was wrong when Troy came home and started shooting hoops. He watched, as his son got more and more frustrated to the point where he just threw the balls at the hoop. He was pretty sure that Troy would have stopped and come in at that point, but Troy just took off, running laps around the house for a good hour and a half till he burst through the door and fell onto the couch…

Coach knew that his son hadn't slept that night, in the morning he was up showered, dressed, and out the door heading to the school as soon as the school opened. When Coach got there he found Troy playing one on one with a boy from the team. He saw Troy there during his free period and lunch period as well. During gym, he just took to running the track, and at basketball he played rough. By the end of Thursday's practice, half of the team was scared of getting anywhere near Troy when he had the ball. Coach was too shocked at his son's sportsmanship to call him on anything. When they got home, Troy did what he did the other day, shot hoops till he'd gotten frustrated and run around the house.

Friday Coach had even shocked the team when he suggested that Troy take a break from the practice that afternoon. He had watched Troy do the same thing as yesterday and he was really getting concerned, blaming himself for Troy's focus on sports.

Troy had ignored his father, playing till the room started to spin…but by that time practice was over. Chad had gone with Troy to Troy's house after practice on Coach Bolton's wishes, to see if he could get through to Troy. Chad was really worried when Troy dragged him into a game of one on one…he had never seen Troy so out of it before. It was like he didn't care that he was physically and mentally wearing himself out.

Chad had tried to get him to stop, but Troy wouldn't listen. When Chad threatened to leave, Troy stole the ball from his hands and made a basket, only distinguishable by the SWISH noise. It was pitch black and Chad was shocked that Troy even knew where the basket was…he couldn't see anything.

Chad had turned to leave when Troy called out to him, "What? Are you just going to give up?"

Chad had rolled his eyes, "No, I'm being smart Troy. You should too. Stop this and just go to sleep."

Troy scoffed at his so-called 'best friend' breathing heavily, "Why should I?"

"Come on man," Chad said, "This isn't you! There's something wrong with you and you need some help."

"There's something wrong with me?" Troy asked, yelling, not caring that the world around him had started to spin again, "You're just scared that I'll beat you…you're...you're just scared…"

"I'm not scared that you'll beat me Troy!" Chad retaliated, "God! What's gotten into you? You're going to wear yourself out."

"What do you care?" Troy spat, taking a staggering step towards Chad.

"I care a lot man, you're my best friend."

"Some best friend you are," Troy hissed, swaying, "You just couldn't let me be happy could you? NO! And now…now…everything's gone…"

Chad opened his mouth to reply when his eyes widened in shock as Troy's eyes roll into the back of his head and his body crumble to the ground…

Sharpay jolted up in bed, ignoring the pain radiating from her back. Her nightmare…god it felt so real that time. She shut her eyes willing the memory to stay down in her mind…but it would not have it…it bubbled to the surface…

_Lady Sarah Emory ran to the courtyard…the men were returning from the crusades again…the wounded…and the dead…For a long time now, she had had a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach, a feeling she did not want to recognize. _

_She ran out to the wounded, sky blue eyes frantically scanning the fallen men for any sign of Theodore…he was no where to be seen. She hiked up the fabric of her dark blue dress before rushing over to the man in charge of returning the men. She begged him for the whereabouts of Theodore Bennet…he pointed to the dead…_

_Sarah's eyes filled with tears as she rushed over to the rows of dead men set out to be buried. She refused to believe that he was dead until she saw it with her own eyes…but there he was…lying there much like the first time she had seen him. Wounded, clothes stained red, unconscious._

_She slowly made her way over to him, begging all the gods of her fathers that it was not as it seemed…that he was not as pale as the other corpses…that his chest _was_ rising and_ _falling like the wounded…but it was not to be. She knelt by his side, taking his cold, dead hand in her own, kissing it gently as tears fell down her face. _

_She felt a soft tap on her shoulders and saw the man in charge standing behind her. She glanced up questioningly as he simply handed her a small bit of parchment, her name written across the front in Theodore's messy scrawl._

_She thanked the man, leaning down and taking one last kiss from her beloved before running into the castle and into her quarters. She sat at her small desk, eyeing the letter before opening it up with shaky hands. Tears fell more freely, blurring the ink as she continued to read his last words to her. Begging her for her forgiveness of returning to the battlefield, asking her to never to forget him, and giving her his love. _

_She threw the letter down, unable to stand it any longer. Soon she followed, falling to the floor as pain and sobs racked her body. The pain…it was too great…she couldn't…she couldn't stand it. If Theodore did not return…her father would pick out a new husband for her…she could not love him…she could not love anyone but Theodore._

_She looked up from her position curled up in a fetal position to see the flowers…the flowers that she and Theodore had picked the day before he'd left for the Crusades…hanging upside down by her door. Hanging…by a rope…_

_The idea was now firmly implanted in her mind…an idea she hadn't even realized fully until she had returned to her room with the rope in her hand. She quickly made the noose, throwing it over the beam that ran across her ceiling, and tying the end to her bedpost. She pulled her chair over to the swinging noose, stepping on it and fastening the rope tightly around her neck. She lifted the note now clenched in her grasp to her lips, kissing the words before taking a shaky breath, and leaping off the chair…_

She let out a breath, thankful that she had woken up when she did. She lifted her hand, rubbing her neck slightly from where she could still feel the rope. Why had she dreamed that tonight? She had already had that dream…so why would it play again if it didn't have to?

She looked around her room as if it held the answers to her questions. She had dreamed of the death of Lady Sarah…she had hung herself after receiving word that her love…Theodore Bennet...had perished in battle…

Just then her eyes landed on a picture placed delicately in the corner of the corkboard above her desk…it was a picture of her and Troy from Kindergarten…

A startling fear filled her eyes as her mind screamed out only one word…one name…

TROY!!!

A/N – Poor, poor Troy…I wonder what will happen? Well, you'll find out soon enough…Next Chapter…what happened to Troy…


	22. Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty-One

Chad was a nervous wreck…first Taylor had led to Sharpay's unintentional accident, and now he had led to Troy's collapse. He had run to Troy as soon as he had fallen, calling for Mr. and Mrs. Bolton to come as quickly as possible. They had run outside, asking him what happened before picking up Troy and carrying him into the house. They put Troy on his bed, trying in vain to wake him up before his parents ran down stairs to call a doctor while Chad kept watch.

Chad didn't know what to do. He had tried everything he could think of to wake Troy up but nothing worked. He felt so helpless, like all he could do was watch while his best friend wasted away before his eyes. He knew he should have talked to Troy before it got to this point, but he kept telling himself that Troy would get over it…that it wasn't that important…Now he saw how wrong he was…how wrong his choice was…how wrong his plan was…

There was a frantic knock on the down stairs door and Chad heard Mrs. Bolton rush to open it, thinking it was the doctor. He heard a shout and a few yelled questions as footsteps ran up the stairs in the direction of the room.

Suddenly the door flew open and Chad's eyes widened in shock at the person standing in the doorway…

"Sharpay?" he asked.

Sharpay ignored him…or didn't hear him…either way she ran to Troy's bed and knelt down. Gently she reached out and before Chad could even call a warning to stop, she took Troy's hand in her own.

As soon as her hand met his…a split second later…Troy's eyes flew open. He stared at the ceiling for a moment before turning his head to face Sharpay. He smiled softly, seeing her there beside him, tears collecting in her eyes. "Hey…" he whispered.

"Hi…" she replied just as softly, eyes filling with tears. "Are you ok?"

His smile grew a little bit more, "Of course," he said partially in a daze, "It's just a little bit of food poisoning…"

Sharpay shook her head, letting out a small laugh from what he had said as a memory arose in her mind…

_Susan walked quickly down the sterile halls of the hospital. She had gotten the call nearly an hour ago and still had yet to find Tom. She didn't know why he had had her listed down under contacts, they had only met a few months ago…yes, they were pretty serious…but she never expected that he would want her to be the one called if something happened to him…_

_She'd never tell him, but she had listed him as her emergency contact as well. She smiled softly as an elderly woman at a desk finally gave her the room number to Tom's room. The woman didn't know what was wrong with Tom though…which left Susan in the dark still. All she had gotten was a call saying that Tom was in the hospital._

_She walked quickly down the hall reading the numbers of the doors until she reached 3324, Tom's room. She took a deep breath before softly knocking on the door and opening it. Her hand flew to her mouth, stifling a gasp._

_There was Tom, lying on his back in the hospital bed, IVs and tubes sticking out of him, an oxygen mask taped under his nose. He was either unconscious or asleep…and she prayed it was the latter…less serious one. She slowly and quietly walked over to Tom's side, taking a seat in the chair next to his bed. _

_Hesitantly she reached out and took his hand in hers, just sitting there watching him. She didn't know how long she sat there but after a long while, Tom's eyes fluttered open. He smiled softly, vision clearing enough to see Susan seated there with a concerned expression on her face. _

"_Hi…" he whispered._

"_Hey…" she said softly. "What happened?"_

_He shook his head, "It's just a little food poisoning."_

_She let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding before lifting his hand and kissing it…_

"Don't even joke…" she murmured, reaching out to stroke his hair.

Troy laughed at that while Chad just looked on utterly confused…and happy at the same time. He looked up just then, in time to see Mr. and Mrs. Bolton appear in the doorway. Mrs. Bolton let out a worried breath before rushing over to Troy to see if he was alright.

The doctor showed up a little while later, Sharpay had yet to leave Troy's side much to the confusion of his parents who could have sworn that Troy had been dating a brunette a few days ago. But they decided not to ask, and Chad wisely decided not to speak, until Troy had been check out. He had collapsed from exhaustion and was to stay in bed all day, making sure that he ate three square meals at least.

Chad left the same time as the doctor, and Sharpay left a small while later, after Troy had fallen back asleep. She muttered a quick goodbye to Troy's parents, not wanting to stay to get an interrogation as to how she knew that something happened to Troy.

She showed up the next day, bright and early to sit and talk with Troy. She had been thinking all night and had realized something that made her reconsider her separation with Troy. She had been so worried about him, wanting to keep away from him for fear of him being hurt…but he had been hurt…and they hadn't been together.

She started to think that maybe…just maybe…they would be ok this time…

The more she thought about it…the more she realized that all those times in the past…they had both been important people or started a relationship that people really wouldn't have accepted. A pharaoh and a priestess, a patrician and a slave, a noble and a common soldier, a married man and a widower, and a politician and a teacher. Each relationship had had some element of deviance to it. No one would accept it…but now…they weren't really that important and the most that they had that went against the grain was that Troy was the Basketball King and she was the Ice Queen. No one would have cared, and if they did they would have gotten over it eventually…and if they were together now…and possibly later…then no one would be the wiser about their status…

She had rolled her eyes at her stupidity. Why hadn't she thought of this before? Coming out to people would have been so much simpler and easier than trying to hide it. The last time they had tried to keep their relationship a secret…she had ended up dead…thanks to her best friend…She should have remembered that and just told Troy that they should be public about it.

They talked about it that Saturday at Troy's house. They both agreed that they would be public about their relationship, face it now so they wouldn't have to later. The first people they told were Troy's parents. It took a while to explain what happened to Gabriella as well as to explain how they had gotten together in the first place, but in the end his parents were in full support of them.

Chad had called as promised, but he had waited till after dinner, which Sharpay had with Troy and his family. He had invited Troy to the park tomorrow with the gang, he told him to bring Sharpay…something about he and Taylor needing to do something.

Troy had no idea what they had to do, but he asked Sharpay nonetheless. They agreed to go…together…

A/N – Yay! They're official! Wooo :) Next chapter will involve the gang in the park…and a new relationship development with two other characters!


	23. Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Gabriella stood on her tippy toes as she tried to get the book down from the top shelf. She groaned to herself, mentally berating herself for not getting a stool or something. She groaned, giving the book one final yank before it toppled off the shelf, nearly smacking her as she fell with it. She let out a small squeak as she hit the carpeted floor.

She sat up, looking at the bigger pile of books she had been standing on when she heard the door to the periodicals open. She glanced up to see one of the people she least expected…Ryan Evans…standing in the doorway. "Ryan?" she asked, knowing she probably sounded stupid.

"Gabriella?" He copied. "Are you ok?" he stepped into the room, holding out a hand to pull Gabriella up to her feet. "I heard a shout."

"Oh…yeah…" she looked away embarrassedly, "I was trying to get the book off the shelf…I fell."

Ryan nodded his head, an 'o' appearing on his face before it was replaced by a smile. Gabriella looked away blushing…unable to deny how cute he had looked just then.

"So…" she started, "What are you doing here? You and your sister don't really strike me as book people."

Ryan laughed at that before holding up a library copy of King Leer. "I was just returning this…It was the last book I had to read to complete my goal of reading the complete works of Shakespeare."

Gabriella's eyes widened, "You've read all of Shakespeare's works?" Ryan nodded and she smiled, "You aren't going to start spouting sonnets are you?"

Ryan smiled slyly, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, and often is his gold complexion dimmed; and every fair from fair sometime declines, by chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed. But thy eternal summer shall not fade, nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, when in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, so long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee." He finished with a dramatic gesture, lifting Gabriella's hand to his lips and planting a small, soft kiss on it. He smirked at Gabriella's slack jaw, laughing slightly before reaching out and shutting her mouth for her.

She blushed and looked down. "So what periodical were you looking for?" he asked, trying to get her mind off her obvious embarrassment.

"Oh, that…I was looking for an article about a chemist from New York." He gave her a curious expression so she continued, "My Chemistry teacher assigned each of us a decade and we have to do a report about a famous chemist from that decade."

"Which decade do you have?" He asked, genuinely interested.

"I had the 1950s." She smiled. She was about to say something more when the librarian walked by the door…but back tracked when she caught a glimpse of the mess Gabriella had made.

"What is the meaning of this?!" She shouted in a whisper.

"Sorry…" Gabriella whispered, moving to pick up the books and place them back on the shelf. Thankfully Ryan was there to help her, he was quite a bit taller than her and was able to reach the shelf. She smiled gratefully at him as the librarian left.

"Thanks," she muttered.

Ryan watched as she headed over to the book she needed, speaking up before she reached it, "Hey…" he started, she turned around, "Do you…need a ride to the park?"

Gabriella smiled sadly and nodded, looking away for a moment. She was dreading the meeting Taylor and Chad were calling at the park. She still couldn't believe what Taylor had done! She came back to school on Thursday, her mind made up. She had thought a lot about her and Troy on Wednesday. She realized…they really weren't right for each other…and if he was happy with Sharpay, then she was happy for him. It wasn't the end of the world…and the fact that she had managed to come to that conclusion made her realize that they weren't as serious as she thought they were.

Imagine her surprise when she got to school on Thursday to find that Sharpay was in the hospital and Troy wasn't speaking to anyone! She had wanted to give them her blessing and support…but she couldn't. Then she found out that Taylor had been responsible for Sharpay's accident…and she didn't even find out from Taylor…or Chad…or even Kelsi! She had gone to Troy to ask him what was wrong, knocking off Sharpay's absence as sickness. He had snapped at her, telling her about what Taylor had done. Gabriella had confronted Taylor and it was confirmed that what Troy said was the truth. She had flipped!

She felt bad about snapping at Taylor…but still, even if she had just been trying to scare Sharpay…she had no right to yell at her! The only person who had that right was Gabriella herself.

Now she was supposed to head over to the park to face Taylor and the rest of the gang. She shook her head out of most of her thoughts before walking over to pick up the periodical book that had fallen open.

She picked it up, shutting it and turning to Ryan…not having noticed the large letters on the front page of where the book had fallen open,

'POLITICIAN TOM BRANDO ANNOUNCES  
ENGAGEMENT TO TEACHER SUSAN ELLIOT'

nor the picture that accompanied it, the fading black and white figures looking remarkably like two people they knew…

Despite having the knowledge that Troy and her were together…Sharpay still felt butterflies in her stomach as she walked to the park. She had turned down a ride from Ryan, saying that she needed to get some fresh air. For the last few days she had been confined to house arrest and the walk would do her good…besides, Ryan had mentioned something about stopping at the library and she didn't feel like being stuck in a car.

She stepped past the large arched entrance and continued down the path, walking slowly, dreading arriving at her destination. Chad had said that they would all meet by the field near the baseball field in the middle of the park. She bit her lip as she got closer, she could see Chad and Taylor already there, talking with Kelsi, Jason, and Zeke. Troy wasn't there, neither was Ryan or Gabriella.

She walked closer to the group, trying to be unnoticeable…unfortunately luck wasn't on her side today. At that exact moment, Kelsi looked up and caught Sharpay's eye. She must have said something to Taylor and Chad because Taylor looked up and looked away quickly, a guilty look on her face while Chad nodded awkwardly to her. Sharpay nodded back and walked slowly towards a large oak tree nearby.

She sighed as she leaned back against the tree. She closed her eyes just letting the serenity of nature relax her. She was close enough to the group to hear what was being said. She took a deep breath when she heard two new voices join the mix, Ryan and Gabriella had arrived.

She really didn't want to go out there and face everyone…so she shut her eyes once more, trying to get a few more moments alone…but as before…luck was not on her side…but neither was bad luck.

She softly when she felt someone step closer to her and wrap their arms around her. 'Troy…' she thought to herself. She leaned in closer, wrapping her arms around him as well.

Troy couldn't shake the sense of familiarity that he got when Sharpay wrapped her arms around him. It was like they had done this before, he knew they had…

_Sarah slowly paced the spot beneath the large weeping willow tree in the garden. Would he come? She didn't know…she could only hope that he would. She wrung her hands together in nervousness. She let out a breath, that would do her no good. Pacing wouldn't make him come faster. _

_She leaned against the tree, resting her eyes as she listened to the crickets playing their tune that night. She hoped that Theodore would come…but she wasn't sure if he could. He was to leave in the morning to return to the crusades…he had told her that afternoon that he was to return._

_A tear slowly fell from her eye as she recalled that days events. Theodore had taken her on a picnic in her favorite wildflower field. They had picked some flowers for her to remember the day with. They were heading back…the sun setting; he kissed her gently, and told her._

_She opened her eyes when she felt a thumb brush her tear from her cheek. She smiled softly when she saw that it was Theodore. She took a shaky breath, placing a silver cross she had had made into his palm. She closed his fingers over the cool metal and looked up into his eyes with her own tear-filled ones. She threw her arms around him and held him close, staining his tunic with her tears…but still she was so happy…he came…_

He shook his head slightly, he'd become accustomed to his odd daydreams…but that didn't keep a smile from appearing on his face.

He looked down at Sharpay who shifted slightly to look up at him. She smiled softly as well, her nerves showing through her eyes. He reached out, stroking her cheek gently in a calming motion. She leaned into his touch, eyes fluttering closed.

Troy leaned forward, lifting her face to his before placing a soft, sugary sweet kiss on her lips. He pulled away, both of them grinning when a cough was heard. They both looked over to see Chad watching them.

He looked down embarrassedly while the two blushed at being caught. He had met up with Taylor yesterday, Saturday, to talk about everything that had happened. "We're uh…we'd like to talk to you guys…" he muttered, rubbing the back of his head before walking off.

Troy looked back at Sharpay who bit her bottom lip slightly. He let his hand trail down her arm to lock with her own.

She let out a sigh before walking off with Troy towards where Chad and Taylor stood amidst their friends. As they got closer, Sharpay couldn't help but think that everything that happened had been Chad and Taylor's fault. She had thought about it last night, after Chad had called. Every life…every thing that happened to their past selves…had been the result of other who had a problem with them. Rademens hated that Tehuti had gotten Subira, the patricians had hated that one of their own was to be with a slave, Theodore had been killed by his enemies in the crusades, Genevieve had poisoned Soleil as a result of the affair, and the campaign team had sent a sniper after them because of their scandalous relationship.

It had never been her fault or Troy's…it had been everyone else's. People weren't accepting of two people who were obviously in love. She looked closer at Chad and Taylor…they looked honestly guilty…they regretted everything they had done. She really couldn't be mad at them…she was just thankful that this time… 'the people' were able to be forgiven. She was just happy that nothing serious…nothing fatal…had happened to either of them. They still had a chance to be together and be accepted as well.

Troy's grip on her hand tightened slightly as they stopped before the two meddlers. Chad looked at Taylor who looked back at him, tears clearly visible in her eyes. He nodded to her, taking her hand as they stepped up to Troy and Sharpay as well, the need for forgiveness shining through their eyes.

"Guys…" they started, "We're so sorry…"

A/N – I thought that was a good place to leave off. I think from Sharpay's thoughts, it's almost clear that Chad and Taylor will be forgiven. I'm planning only about four or five more chapters and then the story will be over…I wish it could go on forever, but all good things must come to an end. -sigh-


	24. Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

A/N - Happy New Years! Chapter could be rated Teen...but there isn't aything _really_ bad...

Troy and Sharpay couldn't have been happier! They had spent Sunday just hanging out with their friends and being together. Chad and Taylor had apologized to them for what had happened. They had forgiven them of course, and Gabriella had even pulled them aside to give them her blessings! The week had been even better than that. They were finally able to walk down the halls of the school hand in hand. The students had stopped and stared at them, whispering slightly, but they quickly got over it. It was almost like they expected them to get together. They _had_ expected them to get together, at least before Gabriella showed up. Every Queen needs her King, they had said as Troy and Sharpay walked by.

It was now Thursday and the musical had been a success! Troy and Sharpay had been amazing in their roles and the songs and performances had been flawless. Sharpay had been pleasantly surprised when the curtains opened for curtain call and there was a standing ovation waiting for them. They had all celebrated a little back stage as they handed back their costumes to the prop people and wiped their makeup off. It had been great!

They had all gone back to their own houses afterwards, everyone was exhausted from the stress of pulling it all together. It was raining out which put a damper on their partying moods slightly. Sharpay had gone straight home with Ryan after dropping off Gabriella, who appeared to have gotten closer over the week. She had caught them sneaking glances at each other; she couldn't wait till they got together.

She collapsed on her bed as soon as she had changed into her pajamas, falling asleep before her head hit the pillow. But sleep was not in her future. She awoke a few hours later from yet another nightmare. She rolled over, groaning as glanced at her glowing digital alarm clock, 2:17. She sighed before getting up off her bed and making her way towards her desk. She clicked on the small lamp and opened the notebook laying on her desk, writing down her dream…

She wasn't the only one who had been getting a fitful night's sleep. A few blocks away a young man tossed in his sleep…but for a slightly…different…reason than a nightmare. Troy Bolton rolled onto his back as his dreams continued. He grabbed at his sheets, now feeling like they were smothering him, bunching the sheets beneath his grip as he twisted in bed, a sheen layer of sweat forming over his body. He took deep breaths, gasping for air, as the dreams seemed more and more real. He turned, letting out a groan as the dream reached its peek.

He jolted awake, breath coming faster as the dream flooded back to him. Visions of Sharpay and him filled with heated passion rose in his mind. A rage of burning need swept through him like a fire. He glanced out his window, seeing the rain pouring down…but he didn't care…

He threw the sheets off his bed, making his way to the window. He pushed it open and leaned out, grabbing onto the drainpipe that was just next to it. He made his way down the pipe, before taking off into the night…he knew what he wanted…what he needed…

Sharpay sighed as she finished up the last notes of her dream. Ever since she was little, she kept a notebook to write down her nightmares…even as a child she knew that they were important. She was about to write the last details down when her phone started to vibrate. She looked over, glancing at the name on the screen. TROY flashed across the surface as her eyebrows furrowed. Why would he be calling her at nearly 2:30 in the morning?

She picked it up, accepting the call as she placed it to her ear, "Troy?" she asked.

"Open your door," he said desperately before he hung up.

She shut the phone down and looked out the glass windows of her balcony only to see Troy climbing over the railing of her balcony, wearing nothing but a plain white T-Shirt and shorts. Her eyes widened as she watched him straighten up and walk towards her door. She got up and ran to the door. "Oh my god! Troy!" she shouted, opening the door. "You're soaking wet."

She waited till he had stepped into her room and she shut the door before turning to him, "What happen…"

She wasn't able to finish her sentence as Troy smashed his lips to hers, pushing her back against the wall by her bed. He held her arms above her head with one of his hands, while the other roamed her body. Passion consumed her as well while she whimpered and squirmed against him, wanting to touch him, as he was her. A few moments later he released her arms, her withering getting to him. Her arms gripped his shoulders as she pushed off the wall, her hands roaming down his body, taking in the muscles of his abs before making their way to the end of his white shirt, sticking to his body from the rain.

Troy stepped back with Sharpay tugging slightly at his shirt before tripping over something on the floor and falling to the ground with Sharpay on top of him…a second later…his shirt went flying across the room…

Troy lay on his back, arm wrapped around Sharpay's waist as she slept beside him. He lifted the edge of the comforter to cover her as he watched her sleep serenely. They were still on the floor, in a makeshift bed of Sharpay's comforter and some throw pillows. He watched her breathing slowly, probably exhausted from their little…excursion…

He smiled gently as he brushed a strand of hair from her face, trying not to wake her. He failed, a few seconds later her eyes fluttered open to stare into his own. His smile grew as he saw the unadulterated love shining in her eyes, "Hi…" he whispered to her.

"Hey," she replied yawning slightly as she sat up on her elbows.

He gazed at her as the comforter fell down slightly, "Did I…hurt you?" he asked.

Sharpay shook her head. She had had that talk with her mother and knew all about what happened during sex. Some women bled, some didn't, some felt pain, some didn't. She had been lucky; she hadn't felt anything besides an enormous pleasure unlike anything she had ever felt before in her life. She looked down at the comforter they were laying on, giggling slightly as she looked back at Troy, "Maybe next time we'll make it to the bed."

"Next time?" He asked, his eyebrows wiggling in a suggestive manner as he gave her a boyish grin.

She rolled her eyes before smacking him lightly on his chest, "Not any time soon," she reaffirmed. "Just because I'm on birth control is no reason to…"

"Oh my god!" Troy shouted sitting bolt upright, the mention of birth control had sparked something in him. He lifted the cover and peered at himself quickly before turning to Sharpay. "We didn't use protection!"

Sharpay laughed at that, earning an 'are you crazy?' look from Troy, "I just said I'm on the birth control pill." She was about to laugh again when she caught the look in Troy's eye. She blushed embarrassedly, "Not…not because I expected anything like this to happen…"

"Right…" he said sarcastically, smirking at her.

"I'm serious," she pressed, "I use it to control my period." He gave her a confused look that she rolled her eyes at. "Trust me, you do not want to have me PMSing during the final week of the musical."

"I'll take your word for that," he said laughing. They fell into a comfortable silence when Troy suddenly turned to Sharpay, "So about next time…"

Sharpay's eyes widened, "No!" she said, "I already told you not any time soon!"

He smirked slightly, "It might be sooner than you think…" he purred seductively. He leaned forward, the action causing Sharpay to lean back to the ground. He reached out, stroking her inner thigh before slowly reaching across her flat stomach. He grazed her breast on his journey to her cheek. His thumb brushed against her cheek as he leaned forward more to plant a kiss on her lips.

Sharpay started to respond to the kiss when Troy moved away. He trailed kisses across her cheek and down her neck before making his way back up to her sweet spot just below her ear. He heard her gasp, smiling into the kiss.

Sharpay's eyes nearly rolled back into her head when Troy found her sweet spot. 'Oh god…' she thought to herself.

A moment later, she couldn't help it. "Oh god," she said before pushing up and rolling them over for an encore performance…

A/N – Wow! Bad, bad Troy and Sharpay…doing the naughty, lol. Next chappy will probably be about the new level of Troy and Sharpay's relationship and whether or not other will notice it. Might also include a surprise from Troy…only about three more chapters left!


	25. Chapter Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

A/N - So...I'm going to try to give you all a good New Year's by finishing the enitre story today. I'm almost done, working on the last chapter...and a surprise right now. Hopefully I'll finish :)

The next day, Troy and Sharpay walked into East High, his arms around her shoulders with her arms around his waist…but there was something different about them…No one could really pinpoint what was different, there was just something there that hadn't been before.

Sharpay just couldn't keep the smile off her face. Last night had been amazing! And that morning had been even better. She had woken up to an empty floor and, thinking to herself that Troy had left, had taken a shower. But when she got out, she was pleasantly surprise to find Troy standing on her balcony, doors open so that she could see him. She smiled as the memory of that morning came back to her…

She just left the steaming bathroom, bathrobe wrapped tightly around her as she dried her crimping hair with a towel still singing the song she had sung in the shower. She turned when she noticed the doors to her balcony open and smiled when she saw that Troy hadn't left yet…he was standing on her balcony…fully clothed. She walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist as he turned to face her as she finished the song.

"_Peu, peu…" he murmured as Sharpay's heart stopped. Had he just said what she thought he'd said? She looked up to see him smirking at her. He had said it! He had said bravo in ancient Arabic…the…the language of the pharaohs…_

_Her eyes widened as his smirk grew, "Bonjour, mi amour," he continued in French. _

_Sharpay's mouth dropped open. Troy reached across and gently shut it. "Pulchra…" he whispered in Latin before leaning down and capturing her lips in yet another passionate kiss that made Sharpay's head spin._

_When Troy pulled away Sharpay had to blink a few times to clear her head. She took a deep shaky breath before looking back up at Troy. "You…do you…" she had to ask him, but her words weren't coming out. She shut her eyes, collecting her thoughts enough to continue. "Do you remember?"_

_Troy smiled broader this time, nodding slowly to her question. "Everything?" she asked._

"_Everything," he confirmed. The next thing he knew Sharpay had launched herself at him, tears in her eyes. Troy held her, shushing her gently as her tears started to subside. "Hey…what's wrong?" he asked._

_She shook her head into his chest before pulling back, "I'm just…happy…"_

_He nodded, wiping the tears from her face. He knew that Sharpay remembered their pasts; she had told him just a few days ago. She had sat him down and explained why she had been acting odd the weeks before. He had to admit, it made a lot of sense to him. It explained why Sharpay had acted weird, it explained all the weird feelings he had been_ _getting, and also helped him realize what his dreams and day dreams had been about. He knew that everything he'd dreamed of had actually happened; it was just a feeling he got. But that helped him realize what they were. Sharpay had even tried to jog his memories by explaining some of the ones he'd dreamed of in detail. _

_But now…now he remembered everything! Last night had been the turning point for him. He and Sharpay had been so connected that his mind went completely blank…only to be followed by crystal clear memories. He couldn't explain it…it was like he woke up that morning and just knew everything he had forgotten. He'd crept out of the room with Sharpay's notebook to read about her own versions of the memories. It confirmed for him that they truly were meant to be together. He'd come back in to hear the shower going and Sharpay singing beautifully as always. _

_He was brought back to the present when he heard Sharpay sigh contently in his arms. He smiled, hugging her one more time before she led him down to the back door so he could head home. It was still pretty early and he doubted that his parents would be awake at 6 in the morning, since they usually arose and woke him at 7. He kissed Sharpay goodbye before jogging across her yard and back in the direction of his house…barely able to wait till he saw her in school in only a few hours…_

Sharpay sighed happily once more as she and Troy stopped by their lockers, which were next to each other's this year. Sharpay shrugged off Troy's Varsity Jacket that she had been swimming in and handed it to Troy so he could put it in his locker…hers was already filled with clothes. She turned back to her locker, rummaging around in it for something she obviously couldn't find. She turned, mouth opening to ask Troy something only to find Troy holding out a pencil. She smiled softly, taking the pencil, just the thing she had been looking for, and turned back to her locker, placing it in her purse.

Troy smiled as well, facing his locker for a moment before turning back to Sharpay. He was about to say something when Sharpay turned without warning. She gave Troy a small peck on the lips somehow knowing that that was what he was about to ask her for. His smile grew as he turned to face his locker, unaware of some students watching their silent exchange.

Sharpay finished putting her books in her bag, shutting her locker to face Troy…her mouth dropped open in shock. Troy was facing her, locker still partially open, a small golden ring with a pink jewel held delicately between his thumb and index finger…held out to her…

"Troy…" she breathed out, "Wha…"

He smiled when she took the ring from him, still too shocked to form a sentence. "It was my grandfathers," he explained, "He gave it to my grandma, and they gave it to my dad…who gave it to my mom…"

She nodded, "I think I get it," she said softly still gazing at the ring.

"Anyway…" he continued, "It's a promise ring…my dad gave it to me this morning before school. Told me to give it to someone special."

"Me?" she asked, as if she couldn't believe he'd chosen her.

"You," he confirmed.

Sharpay threw herself into Troy's arms, ring clenched firmly in her grip as she hugged him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she exclaimed.

He rocked her side to side in his arms, smiling wider than he had in a while. "I take it you like it?" he asked as she pulled back.

"I love it!" she shouted. She tried to slip it on her finger…but it was a little big and shifted on her finger. She looked up at Troy worry in her eyes.

He laughed, turning to pull something out of his locker before shutting it. In his hand, a thin golden chain hung. He took the ring off her finger and looped the chain through it. He nodded for Sharpay to turn around so he could put it on. She lifted her hair as Troy fastened the lock. She felt his hands slip to her shoulders and she turned to face him, tears of happiness collecting in her eyes.

Troy leaned in and hugged her gently. "I thought that your hands might be too small..."

She smiled into the hug, before pulling back and feigning anger, "Too small?"

He nodded, not fooled for a second. "Too small for the ring…" he said before taking her hand and lacing his fingers with her. "But perfect for me."

Sharpay looked down as Troy did, both of them just admiring how perfectly their hands fit together. Sharpay looked up as Troy did, staring deep into his eyes, "I love you…" she whispered.

Troy leaned in and laid a soft kiss on her lips. "I love you too…" he murmured pulling back. He smiled gently, "Semper…" he added using his new found knowledge of Latin.

"Et à jamais," she finished in French.

They turned and headed down the hall, a content feeling settling over them with their promise to love each 'always and forever'. And true to their word, their love and passion showed through their roles that night at the musical. They went out to dinner with their friends knowing not to party just yet…the cast party was tomorrow…

A/N – So…just to clear up something that might be a little confusing. Sharpay and Troy (because of their memories) know how to speak and understand French, Latin, and ancient Arabic. Peu, is pronounced Peh-ooh, I'm not sure if it's right, but I was watching the Mummy Returns, it's what the Pharaoh says after the battle between Anak-su-namen and Nefertiti. But anyway… what do you think will happen at the cast party? Anything interesting? Well, you'll find out soon enough…the cast party (next chapter) is the second to last chapter there will be…two left…


	26. Chapter Twenty Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

The musical had been a success! Three straight days of pure excellence! Three straight days of standing ovations as well. Everyone's mood could only get better as they headed over to the Evan's for the cast party. Being the co-presidents of the Drama Club as well as seniors, it was their duty to host the cast party on the last night…not to mention they had the biggest house out of the seniors as well. Their parents had agreed to be out for the night, leaving the house in the care of their children on the condition that they return to it clean and in one piece. They had even gone as far as to hire a DJ for the kids and stocked up on snacks and foodstuffs for the guests before leaving.

Troy and Sharpay had been dancing most of the time, only stopping half way through to grab a quick bite to eat before heading back out to the dance floor. They had greeted their friends when they saw them but hadn't stayed to chat…more content to go off into their own little world as they danced. They were currently in the center of the dance floor, a slow song had just ended and waited for the next one.

Troy gazed down at the floor confusedly as he listened to the song playing. There was something familiar about the song. He ignored the lyrics, choosing instead to listen to the beat behind it. He smirked as he pulled Sharpay closer to him.

"Does this song seem familiar to you?" he shouted slightly over the music.

She looked up at him, listening to the music…was Rock Ya Body by MVP supposed to be familiar to her? "No…why?" she asked.

"Not the lyrics…" he added, "Listen to the drums!"

Sharpay took a moment to hear the beat of the drums just behind the words. Her eyes widened as she realized just what the drums sounded like. "Do you remember this?" she asked.

Troy smirked wider as he nodded, "Let's give them a show!" he shouted getting a nod of agreement from Sharpay before she took a step back to start her part of the dance…

_The sun had just set upon the deserts of Egypt, signifying the start of the sacred ritual, the celebration of Amun. Every member of the court, the priests and priestesses, all who resided within the palace was in the courtyard, crowded around the raging fire that had been built. Subira stood before the fire, shouting the sacred prayers to Amun while the people around her shouted and swayed to the beats of the drums._

_She threw something into the fire that made it blaze higher. Shouts arose behind her, as the people were sent into a frenzy gathering closer to each other and starting the dance._

_Subira stepped back from the fire, catching Tehuti's eye through the flames. She smiled softly and closed her eyes, swaying to the beat of the drums, letting her head fall back. The beat would not stay as calm as it was now. No…it would soon grow in speed and intensity, striking the most primal instincts of those that had gathered._

_The celebration of Amun was dedicated to the preservation of life and the reverence of death. Each participant was paired with another…but Subira was special. She had never participated in the celebration before and was strangely exhilarated to be the priestess this time. Her part was to be the most important, if she found a partner willing to dance with her…good luck would befall the land…if not…well…she tried not to think of that…_

_She took the first steps, dancing slightly away from the fire before spinning while moving around the fire. Her eyes remained closed as she moved in rhythm with the drums, starting to spin and move faster as the speed picked up slightly. She slowed, stopping as the drums stopped for a instant, sweeping into a sort of bow before standing and opening her eyes to see that she had stopped just in front of where Tehuti stood._

_She smiled as she stood before him. The drums started up once more and she twisted and turned before him, shaking her body in what could only be described as a seductive way. Her smiled turned into a smirk as she watched his eyes start to glaze over with desire as he watched her dance. He had to wait for a certain part of the drums before he was allowed to participate. It was the priestess' duty to perform by herself for the first portion of the dance before she was allowed a partner._

_She threw her hands above her head before slowly lowering them, running them down her sides, shaking her hips and thrusting at him…all the while making sure to keep just out of his reach. Her dance was starting to wind down and she performed her last steps, something similar to a belly dance._

_Tehuti's breath hitched in his throat as he watched Subira dance. She was wearing a long white skirt like she had been when he had first seen her, only this time it had two slits on the sides, running all the way up to her golden belt. Her flat stomach was visible under the white fabric of her halter-top shirt. She still wore her amulet and armlet, but had gone barefoot tonight, as had everyone else. He let out an unconscious growl when she started the last part of her dance, barely able to contain himself before he was allowed to join her._

_As soon as the beat of the drums shifted, his arms shot out and wrapped around her, pulling her close. She let out a gasp at the nearness of his body…and as soon as she had, his mind went blank. He couldn't think as the drumbeat became a part of him, forcing its way into his very blood. His blood began to boil as Subira continued to dance in his arms while he joined her, moving in perfect harmony with her. _

_Subira shivered in his arms as he ran his hands down her back and along her body. Her heart started to race as he danced with her, moving his body along with hers. They moved side to side, practically grinding against each other as the music took them over. She pushed herself up against him, leaving absolutely no space between them. His arms tightened around her more before he leaned her back and snapped her back to him, completing the dance…_

_But he could not stop the smile from appearing on his face. She had stopped before him, the gods had directed her to him…Amun had directed her! She would have to accept his proposal now…they were meant to be…_

Kelsi laughed at a joke that Jason had just told…she didn't really get it, but she laughed anyway. She looked around the room, fully intending to return her attention to the group when her gaze locked on a very stunning sight. Her eyes widened and she nearly choked on the air when she realized just who were at the center of the commotion.

"You guys!" She shouted, turning back to the group. "Oh my god…you guys!"

"What Kels?" Taylor asked, noticing her friend's flabbergastedness.

"Look!" she shouted, pointing to the dance floor.

The group leaned over and looked over to where Kelsi was pointing.

"Oh my god!" Gabriella shouted.

"Is that…" Ryan started.

"Troy and Sharpay?" Chad finished.

Kelsi nodded.

"Damn…" Jason started.

"They're practically doing it on the dance floor!" Taylor shouted utterly appalled as she watched a group of dancers start gathering around her two friends.

Both Ryan and Chad jumped at that exclamation and practically ran for their sister and friend before things got…out of hand.

The song ended with Troy and Sharpay's bodies pressed against one another so closely that not even a piece of paper could fit between them. They were facing each other, breathing heavily, their lips just a hair's breath apart. They leaned in about to kiss when suddenly they were jerked back in opposite directions away from the other. Sharpay looked back to see Ryan pulling her as Troy was yanked by Chad. They glanced back at each other for a second before turning away.

Chad and Ryan pulled them around the dance floor, avoiding the crowded area and rejoining with their friends, who were still standing there shocked at Troy and Sharpay's behavior. Troy and Sharpay pulled themselves from the restraining grasps and immediately went to each other. Troy put his arm around Sharpay's shoulders while Sharpay wrapped one around his waist, leaning against him as their friends shouted…voices overlapping to the point where they couldn't understand what was being said.

After a few moments, their friends started to calm down and take turns speaking.

"What the hell was that?!" Ryan shouted.

"Do you guys know what you were doing?" Chad asked.

"Dancing," Sharpay said smirking at their reactions.

"That was not dancing!" Taylor butted in, "That was…I don't know what that was."

Troy just looked at Sharpay and smiled before leaning in and capturing her lips. The kiss started to grow in intensity when Jason and Kelsi shouted, "Enough!" startling them enough to pull out of the kiss.

"What has been going on with you guys?" Chad asked.

"Yeah, we know you guys," Gabriella said, "You aren't acting like yourselves."

Sharpay's eyebrow rose as she glanced at Troy, he gave her a look that said everything. 'They obviously don't know us that well.' She laughed at his expression when Chad spoke up.

"I think it's about time we put an end to this." Chad stated. Troy and Sharpay gave him a look; didn't he remember what happened when he tried to end them last time? "Not like that," he said seeing their looks, "This all started after break, after you were hypnotized. I say we go back and get her to help us figure out what's been going on."

"And when do you propose we do that?" Sharpay asked.

"Tomorrow…Sunday…" he answered, "The hypnotist that was there last time performs Saturdays, Sundays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays." Everyone just stared at him in confusion. "What?" he asked, "I thought she was good and we could go again some time so I looked up her times."

Troy rolled his eyes at his friend when another song came on. He smiled, tugging Sharpay slightly towards the dance floor, "Well…you guys figure that out…we're gonna go dance."

With that, the group watched as Troy pulled Sharpay out onto the dance floor, watching in awe as they started jitterbugging and swing dancing to Zoot Suit Riot. Ryan's jaw dropped…he didn't know Sharpay could swing dance…

A/N – Looks like their times in the 50s are bubbling to the surface, lol. I love swing dancing…can't do it…but love watching it :) Next chapter…the last one…tear…involves a trip to the hypnotists and the truth about their pasts revealed…


	27. Chapter Twenty Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

Sharpay bit her lip nervously as she and Troy stood back while Chad and the gang went to talk to the hypnotist. Chad had managed to swing tickets to see Jamie Anderson, the hypnotist from before, the very next day. They had sat through the performance, no one in their group volunteering to get hypnotized, more interesting in talk to the hypnotist than being part of the show.

She felt a squeeze on her hand and looked up at Troy who smiled gently at her. He ran his thumb across her hand, calming her significantly, "Don't worry," he whispered to her, watching as the hypnotist glanced at them and nodded, "We have wills of steel remember?"

She nodded, but still couldn't help but think that this time might be different. Chad came back and told them that Jamie would see them all in her dressing room back stage. They followed Chad to the room and took a seat that Jamie offered. They couldn't really explain what had happened to them since the last show so Jamie offered to put them in a trance, relaxing them so that she could get some answers.

They glanced at their friends who nodded before agreeing to her plan. Jamie started putting them in a trance, the group watching as they fell forward onto each other. Jamie snapped her fingers for them to 'wake up' and as soon as she did so, Troy and Sharpay jolted to a sitting position, unseeing eyes flying open.

"How are you feeling?" Jamie asked.

"Fine," they replied at the same time, creeping out their friends slightly.

"Do you know who you are?" She asked.

"Sharpay Evans," Sharpay answered as Troy said, "Troy Bolton."

"Good, good," she said. She glanced at the group unsure of where to go from there.

"Ask them about the last show," Chad said.

She nodded, turning back to Troy and Sharpay, "Now, I want you to think back, back to the last few weeks, back to the past…" She paused a moment, giving them time to process her command. "Where are you?" Jamie asked.

"Boston," they said, "Massachusetts."

"Boston?" Chad asked, what the hell were they talking about?

"Boston?" Jamie questioned, utterly confused.

They nodded, "1953."

"1953?" she asked, her eyes getting wide.

The group looked at each other, "That's impossible," Taylor said.

"Yeah," Ryan added, "Our parents weren't even conceived in 1953."

The group rolled their eyes at him turning back to their two friends.

"Do you know who you are?" Jamie asked.

They nodded, "Tom Brando," Troy said.

"Tom Brando?!" Jamie asked getting excited. "The Tom Brando?"

"Who's Tom Brando?" Gabriella asked, the name seemed familiar to her but she couldn't quite figure where she'd heard it before.

"Tom Brando was a politician in the 1950s." Jamie answered, "He was running for Senator when…"

She trailed as Troy nodded, "He was shot."

"Shot?" Kelsi asked a quiver of fear in her voice.

Jamie nodded, "Tom Brando was assassinated just before the election. His campaign team didn't like the direction his personal life was going in. They didn't think it went with is image."

"His personal life?" Jason asked.

"He was engaged…to a teacher…" Jamie said deep in thought, "I can't quite remember her name right now…it was something like…"

"Susan Elliot," Sharpay answered.

Jamie turned to her, the wheels in her head spinning as fast as possible, "You?" she asked. Sharpay nodded as Jamie shivered, she turned back to the group, "Susan Elliot was shot first, the sniper that was hired for Tom was supposed to take out Susan first."

"Why?" Ryan asked, not understanding why they would have had to take out Susan…Sharpay…"

"They were supposed to be wed…after they had their first child." Jamie answered, as the girls let out a gasp. Jamie nodded, elaborating for the men, "Susan was pregnant…out of wedlock. Something unacceptable in 1953."

"My god…" Gabriella muttered.

Jamie nodded again and turned back to Troy and Sharpay, she got the feeling that that wasn't the end. "I want you to…think back…farther," she said. She glanced at the group seeing their eyes widen as the implication of what she was doing set in.

"Do you know where you are?" she asked, focusing her attention back to the two before her.

They nodded, "Nous sommes en Francé," they answered.

"What?" Chad asked.

"Speak English," Jamie said.

"We are in France," They replied, a slight accent underlying their words.

"The year?"

"1847," they replied.

"Do you know who you are?"

"I am Soleil Everard," Sharpay answered.

"I am Treves Beaufort." Troy continued.

"Treves Beaufort?" Taylor asked, Troy nodded. "Wasn't he…a painter?" she asked the group. "He had a few paintings in the art museum."

"Yeah," Jason said, "I remember seeing them."

"What happened?" Jamie asked, returning their attention back to the two teens.

"My husband died," Sharpay said.

"Treves?" Kelsi asked, tears coming to her eyes again.

Sharpay shook her head, Troy answered, "I am married."

"Married?" Chad asked, eyes widening.

"A family friend," Troy said, "Our parents arranged it."

"Did you know each other?" Jamie cut in.

They nodded, "I came to stay with them when my husband died." Sharpay started.

"We fell in love." Troy finished.

"What happened?" Jamie continued, it wasn't about finding out what happened at the last show anymore…now it was about finding out about the two before her.

"My wife…" Troy started.

"She found out," Sharpay added, "Put arsenic in my tea…poisoned me…"

The group gasped, "What happened to Treves?" Jamie managed to get out.

"I found the arsenic," Troy answered, "I drank it too."

"So…suicide wasn't out of the question?" Kelsi squeaked utterly terrified at the prospect. The two nodded.

Jamie shook her head, "Think back again, go farther into your pasts…where are you?"

A moment later, they answered, "England."

"The time?"

"1229," they said not hearing the gasps from their friends.

1229? That was a hell of a long time ago.

"1229?" Ryan asked.

"That was near the 6th crusade…right?" Gabriella asked turning to Taylor who nodded.

"Do you know who you are?" Jamie questioned.

"Lady Sarah Emory," Sharpay spoke. They group looked at each other, they had never heard of her before.

"Theodore Bennet," Troy added, "I am a soldier."

"Did you know each other?"

They nodded, "I was brought to Emory manor for my wounds," Troy said, "Sarah found me."

"We fell in love…" Sharpay joined in, "but he returned to the battle."

Jamie bit her lip, almost guessing would happen next, "And then?"

"I was struck down in battle," Troy said, monotone.

"I took my life when I found out." Sharpay concluded.

"You killed yourself?" Ryan asked, shocked at his…sister's…actions.

She nodded, "I hung myself."

The girls gasped again, latching onto the boys they had come with.

Jamie swallowed the lump in her throat, unsure of whether she wanted to continue. She looked up at Chad; he took a breath and nodded for her to go on.

She nodded, "Think back, farther…where are you?"

"Nos es Romae," they said.

"Speak English," Jamie commanded again.

"We are in Rome," the replied.

"And the year?"

They seemed to think a moment, "505 BC."

"Wow…" Ryan started, he hadn't been expecting that.

"Who are you?"

"Quintus Julius Trenus," Troy answered, "Son of Senator Quintus Julius Brunus."

"And you?" Jamie asked turning to Sharpay.

"Sericia Eudo," she said softly, almost as if she were afraid to speak. "I am a slave."

"A slave?" Taylor asked appalled.

Chad shook his head, "No," he said, seeing what Taylor was thinking, how could Sharpay be a slave if she wasn't black. "Back then, the Romans had slaves from every race and color…usually prisoners or capturers of war."

They looked at him, shock evident in their eyes, "What?" He asked, "I pay attention sometimes…"

"Did anything happen to you two?" Jamie questioned.

"They killed me," Sharpay said, "When they found out."

"When who found out what?" Ryan asked.

"The patricians found out I wished to wed Sericia," Troy stated. "They do not take kindly to marrying beneath their status."

"Wait…" Gabriella started, "Sericia…was she your slave?"

Troy nodded, "I tried to stop them…they killed me too."

"Have you lived before that?" Jamie asked, unsure of whether or not they were finished. They nodded slowly, Jamie sighed, "Think back, farther into your past…where are you."

They said something unintelligible, unlike anything that any of them had heard. "Speak English."

"We are in Egypt."

Jamie's eyes widened, these two were just all over the place, "What year is it?"

There was a long pause, almost as if they were both calculating the age they had lived in. "2492 BC."

The group nearly blanched at that, how many lives had the two lived? "Who are you?"

"I am Tehuti, pharaoh." Troy answered, straightening his posture slightly.

"And I am Subira, priestess of Amun for the pharaoh," Sharpay replied.

"What happened to you?" Jamie asked, fear gripping her stomach as she realized the fate of their pasts.

"A war," Troy said angrily.

"Rademens wanted me back," Sharpay took over.

"Rademens?" Jason asked.

"My rival," Troy answered, "I beat him, he offered Subira as payment for his life."

"Then he attacked," Sharpay added.

"I fought and was struck down," Troy concluded.

"And you," Jamie started, turning to Sharpay, "Rademens took you back?"

Sharpay shook her head, "No, I was watching from the wall of the palace…I fell…"

Jamie shook her head; she didn't want to know the rest of their pasts. "Come back now, come back to the present." She said hurriedly.

"What do you think that was all about?" Chad asked as Jamie worked on bringing them to the present.

"I don't know," Kelsi started, "But it sound like…their…"

"Past lives?" Gabriella asked, Kelsi nodded. "I think that's what it was."

"Are you here?" Jamie asked the two teens. They nodded. "What did you just speak of?" she asked, trying to confirm what the kids had talked about.

"Our pasts," Sharpay answered.

"Our lives," Troy added.

"Your past lives?" Jamie asked, they nodded. "Do you remember them?" they nodded again as something occurred to her, "Since the show…" they nodded. Jamie turned to Chad and the rest of the group. "When they were hypnotized before…it must have triggered something in their memories that made them remember all that."

They started to nod slowly, it made sense. It explained so much about what had happened the last few months, all their actions and spaceyness.

"You both remember everything?" Gabriella asked. "Each other?"

They nodded again, "We never have before."

Jamie shook her head in confusion, "Elaborate," she said.

"We are to be together in each life…in every life," They replied, "But never before have we remembered out other lives."

"This is the first time?" Jamie asked.

They nodded, "We were not supposed to remember."

"How do you know that?" Taylor asked.

They didn't answer. Jamie's brow furrowed in thought, "Maybe…" she started, "If the hypnotism allowed them to remember the past…allowing them to be this relaxed might…let them realize the future?"

Taylor and Gabriella, clearly the smartest of the group seemed to get what she was saying while everyone else just looked confused. "You mean…" Gabriella started, "They're accessing that part of their brain that's perceptive of the future?"

Taylor nodded, getting it exactly, "Kinda like how 'psychics' can predict the future…they're getting a sense of what's to come."

Troy and Sharpay nodded at that, shocking the group. "Remembering our past has let us examine what might happen in the future."

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked.

"We were able to see the signs, warn ourselves," they said.

Gabriella nodded, "Like at my party…with the lime."

Sharpay nodded, "Sharpay recalled the tea that Genevieve gave her."

"Genevieve?" Jamie asked, ignoring how Sharpay had referred to herself in the third person.

"My wife," Troy answered.

"Describe," Jamie commanded.

"Tall, brown eyes, brown hair…" Troy started.

"Genevieve?" Taylor asked as if something had occurred to her. Each of their past had had the same initials S.E. and T.B. "Gabriella?" she asked turning to face her friend.

Gabriella paled considerably as Sharpay shook her head. "Being brunette with a G name is coincidence…it is of no importance and will never appear again."

"Though it does explain Troy's affection towards Gabriella, she reminded him of his friend Genevieve…he was comfortable around her," Troy concluded.

Gabriella let out a relieved sigh, "Oh thank god," she murmured taking Ryan's hand in her own, "I don't think I could handle being reincarnated."

"What about me?" Ryan asked, "Sharpay's my sister…am I there every time?"

Troy shook his head, "Your presence is irrelevant…your absence would not affect the time line."

Ryan looked completely heart broken to hear that he was that insignificant. As if sensing his torment, Sharpay spoke, "Siblings change each time…some times they are there…sometimes they are not…"

"Elaborate," Jamie said.

"Susan had an older sister, Soleil had a younger brother, Sarah was an only child, Sericia was taken from her family three sisters and two brothers, and Subira never knew her family." Sharpay replied.

"So…what happens if something happens to one of you?" Kelsi asked. It seemed like, from their pasts, they'd end it all if they couldn't be with the person they loved. They turned an unseeing eye to Kelsi, giving her a blank stare that answered her question. They would do what they must to be together.

"Man…makes me happy that Sharpay didn't die when she fell down the stairs." Chad muttered to himself, but everyone heard him. A shiver ran down their spines as they realized just what Troy could have done if that had taken a bad turn…

"Had their memories not been recovered," Troy said monotone, catching their attention, drawing it away from Chad, "There would have been once close call."

"Elaborate," Jamie said.

"College, summer before junior year, Sharpay would be broadsided on the way home from a night course." Sharpay said.

"She would be hospitalized," Troy continued, "Doctors would not know if she would make it…they doubt it."

"Troy's roommate would return to the dorm to see Troy about to jump, a rope tied around his neck." Sharpay added.

"He would stop Troy," Troy stated.

"Two days later, Sharpay would awake." She said.

"And Troy would propose," Troy finished.

"Wow…" Jason muttered.

"So…if this had never happened, Troy would still be with me and not with Sharpay?" Gabriella asked worriedly, taking Ryan's hand in her own.

"No…that is not true," the two said in unison.

The group stared in confusion at the two before Taylor spoke, realizing that the two probably couldn't see their confused expressions, "What are you talking about?"

"Without their current knowledge they would have joined regardless…" the two said once again. "They would create the ends…"

"The ends?" Chad asked.

"Sharpay started the end," Sharpay said, creepily referring to herself in third person once again, "She ended her union with the boy Zeke…"

"Nearly six months later, Troy would end the union with the girl Gabriella." Troy finished.

"Why?" Gabriella asked, nearly in tears. It was hard hearing that regardless of everything, Troy would have still left her for Sharpay.

"Pressures greater than that of the previous year would be laid upon Troy," Sharpay said.

"And he would seek solace in the one soul that understood the weight of expectations." Troy added.

"Sharpay would understand…" Sharpay started when Ryan cut her off.

"Why?"

"A report in literature of their college expectations would spark the next level of their relationship," Sharpay explained.

"Sharpay would write of attending college for her parents, doing as they wished and not what she wanted…Troy would see a kindred soul." Troy concluded.

"They would speak…a relationship would grow." Sharpay said.

"A week after the musical, of which they would be the leads, the union with Gabriella was to end. A month later…prom…would mark the beginning." Troy stated.

"But you both remember, it must affect this life time," Taylor thought out loud.

The two nodded at the same time before speaking as one yet again, "Had they not remembered, they would have attended rival collages, dated, married, had three children…twin boys and one girl…before dieing in a car accident on thanksgiving with their children…"

"And…and now?" Ryan asked, in fear of his sister's fate.

They smiled softly, "Now they have learned from their pasts, they know how it affects their present, they see how it affects their future. They shall live to an old age as was always meant. They shall attend the same college, doing that which they love, they shall become engaged the summer before their junior year, marry at the end of their senior, they shall have three children as was said, and pass on peacefully in their sleep, five years after the birth of their great granddaughter."

"That's it?" Chad asked, "And that's the end of it all?"

They shook their head, "The end is only the beginning. Two centuries later a new life will begin."

"I am to be an assassin, sent to eliminate a strong public figure and his son." Sharpay said unaware of the wince that Ryan emitted at the thought of his sister being an assassin.

"She is to be injured on the way to her target," Troy continued, "My son finds her and we take her in. A relationship is created…"

"And I am unable to complete my mission," Sharpay finished, "The agency sends their men to finish us off."

"We both die fighting," Troy added, "But my son escapes…150 years later…"

"We don't need to know," Gabriella said.

"As you wish," They said.

"I think we've figured it all out," Jamie said, looking to Chad for approval. He nodded and she turned back to the two to bring them back and snap them out of their trance.

Troy and Sharpay blinked a few times when Jamie snapped her fingers before their eyes. They looked around at their friends, who were all smiling at them. They looked at them all, a questioning look in their eyes. "What?" they asked, had they revealed something embarrassing?

"Nothing," Chad said, shaking his head. He thanked Jamie with the rest of the gang while Sharpay and Troy waited out side, needing some air.

Troy wrapped his arm around Sharpay's shoulders holding her close as they headed to the cars to wait for everyone.

He looked down at her, just watching her leaning against him serenely. He smiled; he couldn't believe he'd been as lucky as he was, to be with her. And this time, it looked like everything might actually go well for them. He couldn't explain how he knew; he just had this feeling…like everything was going to be ok for once…

"What are you thinking about?" Sharpay asked, looking up at him.

She was so beautiful, he couldn't understand something though. "Why do you think we didn't get together sooner?" he asked her, he had been wondering that for a while now and couldn't think of any specific reason why they hadn't been an item…at least before Gabriella came.

"Well…" Sharpay started, "I guess it's cause we never met when we were that young before. And things are more complicated now what with cooties and…"

"More complicated?" Troy asked, stopping them in their tracks. "I think things are less complicated now. I mean, think about it. A king and priestess, a slave and a master, noble and soldier, widower and married man, and politician and teacher in a premarital relationship! It doesn't get any more complicated than that!"

Sharpay laughed at his explanation. "You're right," she sighed taking his hand in hers and pulling him away towards the car. She leaned against the side of it, smiling as Troy gave her a gentle kiss. She couldn't get that smile off her face the rest of the night…she just had a feeling that everything was going to work out for the better this time…

A/N – So…I have a surprise for everyone…one final chapter...I'm also thinking of writing another Troypay fic! I'm not sure when I'll write it, I might in the next few days, but then I might not update for a while because my parents were a little annoyed by my constant writing, lol. But the next fic is probably going to be about Troy and Sharpay (duh) and a relationship that they've been involved in for years, despite the appearance of Gabriella. Sound interesting? I hope so…


	28. Epilogue

Epilogue

Californian Colony 2225 A.D.

_She crept along the vine draped red brick wall just along the estate. The ducked behind a bush as the sentry probes flew past scanning for intruders. She turned the small dial on her wristwatch, turning the sensors in her blue skintight body suit on. The sensor scanned her before quickly flying off._

_She sighed, 'Probes…' she thought to herself, 'Worse yet, heat sensors…' She laughed to herself; a quick flip of the A/C censors would lower the temperature around her enough for her to be 'invisible' to the heat sensors._

_She thrust her hand up towards the wall, two small black ropes shooting out and over the wall. They latched onto something on the other side and she scaled the wall. She balanced on top of the wall, eyeing the grounds before jumping down._

_She landed lightly, about to continue when she heard an electronic whir behind her. She turned quickly just in time to see a portion of the wall before her open up and spikes shoot out. Her eyes widened as she tried to dodge the spikes, her sources had not mentioned this part of security. She winced as a spike imbedded itself in her side, she pulled it out slowly, nearly biting her tongue off as she tried not to scream. _

_She pressed a firm hand to her side before getting up and trying to make her way towards the house. She had to work quickly, if she didn't her window would be lost. She cursed herself for not being more aware of her surroundings, how could she have been so stupid as to over look the spikes?! _

_She bit the inside of her mouth as she swayed while she walked, the wound was slowing her down but she could not stop. Her sources told her that Edward Beckham walked Blondie, their golden retriever, around the grounds every night at 10 before going to bed. She needed to make it to her stake out spot before the boy got there or else she would not be able to finish him off and head for the house. _

_She groaned softly as she reached the base of the large oak tree that she was to ambush him at. Sitting was not the best possible action; it opened the wound more, allowing the blood to flow more freely. She looked up hearing a dog bark in the distance…her visions blurred._

_She tried to stand, to get ready to attack…to take out the dog first, but she swayed. She took a step forward but stumbled and fell as the world spun before her. She saw a golden blur running towards her with a small child before her world went black…_

_The small boy ran up to the fallen woman, turning her over and eyeing the wound in her side. His eyes widened, "Blondie stay here!" he instructed before running off. _

"_Dad!" the boy shouted rushing into the house where his father was drinking tea in the kitchen, "Dad come quick!"_

"_Edward?" the man called, looking up to see his son rushing towards him. "What is it?"_

"_Come quick!" the boy shouted, grabbing his father's hand and pulling him out towards the trees. "Someone's hurt!"_

_The man ran faster with his son leading him. He took one look at the fallen woman and immediately knew that it was one of Rorrick's assassins. He eyed the wound as well as the regulation dog tags around her neck. During WWIII too many soldiers had died unidentified, indestructible and irremovable dog tags had become the standard upon birth. He reached out, reading the tags 'Serenity Evander' before reaching into a small pouch on her black belt. He pulled out a piece of paper, reading it over quickly. "Serpent…Mission: Eliminate Tai and Edward Beckham."_

_He looked away from the paper, finally looking at the woman before him. Her blonde hair was held back in a tight high ponytail while her face scrunched in pain. Despite the fact that she had been sent to kill him, he couldn't stop himself from thinking 'Beautiful…'_

"_Dad! What are we going to do?" Edward asked, watching his dad in worry._

_Tai looked from his son to the woman, to the paper, and back to the woman. He shook his head knowing that he would regret it later, before picking up the woman and horridly carrying her towards his house…_


End file.
